BEFORE THE CLIFF
What we can learn from Iceland
How Iceland Got Teens to Say No to Drugs
Curfews, sports, and understanding kids’ brain chemistry have all helped dramatically curb substance abuse in the country. Today, Iceland tops the European table for the cleanest-living teens.
There’d been all kinds of substance prevention efforts and programs, mostly they were built on education. Kids were being warned about the dangers of drink and drugs, but, these programs were not working. Iceland came up with a different approach.
By 1992, a government grant was given to form Project Self-Discovery, which offered teenagers natural-high alternatives to drugs and crime. They got referrals from teachers, school nurses and counsellors, taking in kids from the age of 14 who didn’t see themselves as needing treatment but who had problems with drugs or petty crime.
They didn’t say to them, you’re coming in for treatment. They said, we’ll teach you anything you want to learn: music, dance, hip hop, art, martial arts. The idea was that these different classes could provide a variety of alterations in the kids’ brain chemistry, and give them what they needed to cope better with life: some might crave an experience that could help reduce anxiety, others may be after a rush.
The recruits got life-skills training, which focused on improving their thoughts about themselves and their lives, and the way they interacted with other people. The main principle was that drug education doesn’t work because nobody pays attention to it. What is needed are the life skills to act on that information. Kids were told it was a three-month program. Some stayed five years.
Sport, music, art, dance and other clubs give kids alternative ways to feel part of a group, and to feel good, rather than through using alcohol and drugs, and kids from low-income families received help to take part. In Reykjavik, for instance, where more than a third of the country’s population lives, a Leisure Card gives families 35,000 krona (£250) per year per child to pay for recreational activities.
Laws were changed
Curfews, sports, and understanding kids’ brain chemistry have all helped dramatically curb substance abuse in the country. Today, Iceland tops the European table for the cleanest-living teens.
There’d been all kinds of substance prevention efforts and programs, mostly they were built on education. Kids were being warned about the dangers of drink and drugs, but, these programs were not working. Iceland came up with a different approach.
By 1992, a government grant was given to form Project Self-Discovery, which offered teenagers natural-high alternatives to drugs and crime. They got referrals from teachers, school nurses and counsellors, taking in kids from the age of 14 who didn’t see themselves as needing treatment but who had problems with drugs or petty crime.
They didn’t say to them, you’re coming in for treatment. They said, we’ll teach you anything you want to learn: music, dance, hip hop, art, martial arts. The idea was that these different classes could provide a variety of alterations in the kids’ brain chemistry, and give them what they needed to cope better with life: some might crave an experience that could help reduce anxiety, others may be after a rush.
The recruits got life-skills training, which focused on improving their thoughts about themselves and their lives, and the way they interacted with other people. The main principle was that drug education doesn’t work because nobody pays attention to it. What is needed are the life skills to act on that information. Kids were told it was a three-month program. Some stayed five years.
Sport, music, art, dance and other clubs give kids alternative ways to feel part of a group, and to feel good, rather than through using alcohol and drugs, and kids from low-income families received help to take part. In Reykjavik, for instance, where more than a third of the country’s population lives, a Leisure Card gives families 35,000 krona (£250) per year per child to pay for recreational activities.
Laws were changed
- It became illegal to buy tobacco under the age of 18 and alcohol under the age of 20.
- Tobacco and alcohol advertising was banned.
- Links between parents and school were strengthened through parental organisations which by law had to be established in every school, along with school councils with parent representatives. Parents were encouraged to attend talks on the importance of spending a quantity of time with their children rather than occasional “quality time”, on talking to their kids about their lives, on knowing who their kids were friends with, and on keeping their children home in the evenings.
- A law was passed prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10 p.m. in winter and midnight in summer. It’s still in effect today.
- Home and School, the national umbrella body for parental organizations, introduced agreements for parents to sign. The content varies depending on the age group, and individual organizations can decide what they want to include. For kids aged 13 and up, parents can pledge to follow all the recommendations, and also, for example, not to allow their kids to have unsupervised parties, not to buy alcohol for minors, and to keep an eye on the wellbeing of other children. These agreements educate parents but also help to strengthen their authority in the home. Then it becomes harder to use the oldest excuse in the book: ‘But everybody else can!’