THERE ARE CERTAIN households in Barbados where smoking marijuana is the norm, says manager of the National Council On Substance Abuse (NCSA), Yolande Forde.
However, she said penetrating the home remained one of the council’s biggest challenges.
“There is evidence of children as early as seven or eight using drugs,” Forde said, “and this is usually because it exists in the household. We have to realize there are communities and homes where marijuana is the norm. This is now a part of the unfortunate socialization of our children.”
Forde was speaking to the media on Tuesday after the opening of a three-day Organization of American States/Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission training and certification programme at Almond Beach Village Resort, St Peter.
She said the NCSA was actively seeking methods to get into the homes of children at risk but as the home was a private place, it was not easy to penetrate.
“You cannot just go into someone’s private home and say you are there to admonish them for using drugs, so it has to be very strategic and we have to work out real workable solutions but until we do so, I [believe] we are not doing as much as we could,” she added.
In her presentation, Forde said the training programme would allow all engaged in drug treatment and prevention work to finally have standardized qualifications.
“Tackling the problem of drug abuse and addiction is too critical and too technical for fixed criteria not to be set and met for the operation of rehabilitative facilities and those who work in them,” she said.
Forde said the nexus between drugs and crime could “undo a country’s efforts at nation building and rock its very pillars of democracy”.
She added that 85 per cent of criminal behaviour and imprisonment in Barbados was due to the abuse of illegal drugs, which was why it was so crucial for international organizations to work with the Caribbean to address this issue. (CA)
