Speaking today (September 1) at a digital press conference, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton revealed that substance use has become an emergent issue in high schools.

This data is among the findings of a study which was a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Ministry of Education.

“Today we want to discuss the issue of substance abuse base on a study that has been done it is the start of a process because it was a relatively quick turnaround study to do an initial assessment to determine whether or not additional deep diving is necessary and the conclusion is that we will have to do additional deep diving,” Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton pointed out.

He added: “A lot has happen over the last two years and it has had an impact on our young people and that has led, we believe, to some of the challenges. Substance use has been a trending topic, a lot of discussion have been taking place and with increasingly new and creative ways to abuse various substances across age cohort and so, from a public health perspective, this is a very important area to track and to develop new and improved ways to monitor and to respond.”

Tufton stated that it is particularly important as it relates to young people and the reports of pill parties that have been taking place along with the growing concern in increased substance use among secondary age students.

He continued: “What we are witnessing as evidence by the study, is a normalising of drug use, especially among our young people in particular areas. This is symptomatic of a public threat warranting for us an important response, response to gathering more information and response in terms of policy adjustment.”

The effects of COVID-19

Local data from the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) pointed to an increase in the use of alcohol and cannabis as a result of anxiety depression, loneliness, financial challenges and other form of concerns around the restrictions that COVID would have posed.

Acting on this information, the health ministry anticipated a more in-depth look at adolescents.

“For a closer look on the impact on our youths we therefore decided that assessment would be necessary to do a rapid situational evaluation and we conducted that in May 2022 where we went into 13 secondary schools. The assessment involved 160 students from grades 8 -10 and took place across 13 parishes. Additionally, we spoke to the administrators, teachers and 20 guidance counselors,” Tufton noted.

The findings

The findings indicated that drug use, scamming, mental health, verbal and physical aggression, weapons carrying, excessive sexual behavior and pregnancy were some of the issues that came out of the study.

“Molly, vaping and edibles emerged among the most popular substances being used by adolescents and came out the top three. Now, prior to this, what the council has found in our studies is that alcohol, tobacco and cannabis were the most popular substances our context is changing, the context around world is changing, new psychoactive substances are becoming more accessible and more popular,” stated Uki Atkison, reseach analyst at the NCDA.

Molly

Molly has become on of the party drugs that have develop popularity among young Jamaicans in recent times. The study indicated that molly is being widely used by students and is easily accessible these days.

“Molly can do things like increase our heart rate, increase our blood pressure, cause muscle tension and teeth clenching, nausea and most importantly increase the risk for unprotected sex,” Atkinson pointed out.

She told her audience that students were able to describe what the pills look like, where they get them, who uses them and how they are used. Another revelation from the study was the prices quoted by students for pills. Students spoke about pills costing as low as $300 and as high as $2,500.

“The drug is considered useful for sexual actives. What some students said is that the women when they take the molly they get on freaky and molly is for women and ecstasy is for men. So it is clear that students don’t know what molly is because molly and ecstasy are actually the same thing both of them are MDMA, two, the risk perception is quite low, in other words they think it’s just a feel good fun drug and the fact that it can have serious impact on their health is not widely known,” Atkinson said.

Some students identified purchasing pills online or accessing it in communities and others were knowledgeable of its effects, having witness their peers with it.

Drug experts say molly is a drug that can enhance mood producing stimulant-like effect, drives the propensity for deviant behaviour, sexual activities, increase abuse potential and also, from a clinical perspective, damages brain function and cognitive development.

Vaping

At the same time, vaping has also been dominating the drug space among youths as there is an ease of access to E-cigarettes for youngsters nowadays.

“In the past it was felt that vaping devices were things used by uptown children. This is not what we have found. It is not subjected to socio economic background nor location, so we are talking about rural, urban, remote rural youngsters speaking about being able to buy vape devices without being encumbered,” Atkinson revealed.

 Edibles

Edibles in the form of weed cakes, cookies or brownies are widely circulated within schools.

 Atkinson pointed out that, with edibles: “You can never know what you are getting, so someone can bake a cookie or a brownie and put a significant amount of cannabis in it compared to others who may just put a small amount in it. Therefore, the impact on students is wide and varied. A number of them gave personal accounts of their own use of edibles and how it impacted them.”

During the focus groups, some participants spoke of others who ended up in hospitals because of the acute reactions that they have to edibles and what was also revealed is that, like molly, the perception of risk is very low. Students are of the view that eating Ganga is way less harmful than smoking it. The access and exposure were very high and in some instances were available for purchase at school.

Rummy bears

Gummy bears soaked in alcohol are one of the latest fads among youngsters. Alcohol continues to be used by students and the newest method is ‘rummy bears’.

The report shows that they have become quite popular in schools and are actually being sold on school compounds.

“We did not have a pill popping culture nor do we typically have an injection drug use culture but things are changing and therefore it’s incumbent on us to stay on top of these things and try to prevent them and create interventions that are necessary at this time,” Atkinson stressed during her presentation.

Ministry of Educations response

The ministry, in its response, noted that, even though the study is not a ‘big study’, it is indicative.

“We take it seriously so it will inform some of the strategies that we already have on the ground because we are aware that there are problems with substance and substance abuse in the school system. So we are going to take this seriously and take the findings to help us to continue and to ramp up some of the existing strategies that we have in the space,” said Maureen Dwyer, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education and Youth.

She further noted that the ministry is concerned about the ease of access and ministry’s intervention at the moment will have to be ramped up based on the findings here.

She continued: “The ministry has budgeted for $20 million for behaviour modification and counseling coming out of COVID because we understood that many of our children had gone through severe challenges in terms of depression. There is another $15 million that will be used to enhance the safety and security within school through the use of cameras.”

“The $15-million spend speaks specifically to our commitment to support six of our targeted high schools with the procurement and instillation of CCTV surveillance systems, given the structure of some schools and the differences to find some blind spots the use of surveillance system is very important. This is a commitment that a number of schools would have already invested in and is a commitment of the Ministry of Education to target those particular schools with particular challenges to be in a position to utilize technology in their effort to treat with surveillance and monitoring,” said Richard Troupe, director of the Safe Schools Programme in the education ministry.

The six schools that will benefits from the initiative are: Denham Town High, Papine High, Eltham High Oracabessa High, Grange Hill High and Hopewell High.

Tufton noted that the results of the study serve to highlight that use of substances by students is a serious threat and therefore the trend in increased use represents a clear and present danger.

“There are grave concerns to address with our youths at this point I want to appeal to our parents and guardians to talk to and monitor their children this is a matter for national attention,” he said.