Learning About Health and Social Problems Associated with Drug Use

What is a drug?

A drug is any substance that alters the way the body is working. Some drugs are designed to make our bodies work better and fight disease. Any drug that is taken into the body is distributed all around the body by blood that is circulating inside. Drugs can impact on all organs in the body. Alcohol, tobacco, kava and betel all contain drugs. 

Activity 1

Teacher works with the whole class group and writes up notes from the discussion on the board or butchers paper. Make sure the discussion covers all of the following – alcohol (including wine, home brew, spirits such as rum, whisky etc), kava,  nicotine(tobacco), marijuana, painkillers, vaccinations, prescribed drugs from the health worker or hospital. 

Discussion Question: What are the common drugs that are used in the community.   

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Activity 2

Participants to work in pairs and discuss the different drugs they have identified. Each pair will discuss a different type of drug and answer the following questions.

Each pair reports their answers back to the group and the teacher provides clarification if the participants are struggling with the answers.  

What is the drug and what things contain the drug? How is the drug absorbed into the body? 

How does the drug  affect the body? Which are the main organs of the body effected by drug? 

What effects does the drug have on families and the community?

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Activity 3

This activity is about making judgments on the use of drugs. Tobacco is used as the example. The teacher explains that the exercise could apply to a number of drugs. 

Participants identify a person they know who smokes cigarettes. They interview the person and bring the results of the interview back to the classroom. They must find out how many cigarettes the person smokes in one day. How much smoking cigarettes costs the person for one day, one week and one month. 

They also find out from the person if they believe that smoking is impacting on their health, their family or their community. 

Each person brings the results of their interview to the classroom for guided discussion. 

Teacher guides the discussion along the lines of the following questions

§  Is smoking expensive?

§  What does it cost some people to smoke each day?

§  Does the family of a smoker miss out on other things because the person is buying cigarettes?

§  What else could the family be buying with the money spent on cigarettes?

§  What are the health costs for the person who is smoking?

§  What are the social costs to the family and the community? 

Teacher starts a discussion about other drugs and what they cost the person, the family and the community. Discuss what problems arise with the use of alcohol and kava.