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Norms
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Public
Policy
Immediate Family
Extended Family
Kids and Drugs
The relationship that kids have with drugs depends on the influence and effects of their whole
life environment and circumstances, the relationships they are in, and their eventual decisions
about their own personal use.
The ultimate influence and effects of drugs in a child’s life will come from:
•The community norms that shape common beliefs about drugs. What is the
community’s attitude about drugs? Which drugs are acceptable or unacceptable? What is
the community’s attitude about problem use? Does this use reflect a disease, moral
weakness or criminal act? What about cultural differences and beliefs? What about
rehabilitation and second chances? What kind of supports and assistance will a
community provide? What kinds of sanctions and barriers exist?
•The policies that are developed from community beliefs and standards. What are
the laws and rules that govern use of drugs? What kind of use is made criminal and
subject to prosecution and incarceration? What are the policies around treatment?
Punishment or rehabilitation? One standard or many? What factors influence change?
•The child’s family members/caretakers attitudes about and use of drugs. What are
the family’s history and beliefs about drug use? What kind of behavior is modeled for the
child? What kind of access does the child have to drugs used in the family? What are the
consequences to the child of family members’ drug use? Of the child’s drug use?
•The child’s beliefs and decisions about personal drug use. What are the influences
on personal drug use decisions? Peer influence? Family influence? Media? Culture?
Neighborhood or community? Poverty? Education experiences and options?
Kids and Drugs: Surrounding Systems
The systems that surround children affect their life experiences and form
the foundation of their beliefs, attitudes and behaviors related to drugs.
These systems include:
• Family
• Immediate Family-Extended Family
• Schools
• Community Agencies and Organizations
• Medical-Mental Health-Churches-Family Support-Childcare-Youth
Programs-Recreation-Mentoring
• Civil Legal System
• DSHS-Dependencies-Family Court-Dissolutions- Child Custody-BECCA
Hearings
• Criminal Legal System
• Police-Jails-Adult Court-Drug Court-Juvenile Court-DOC InstitutionsJRA Institutions
Work Release-Parole/Probation-Treatment Systems
• Government--Federal/State/Local
• Policies
• Funding
Kids and Drugs: Surrounding Systems
When children encounter the consequences of drugs in their lives, the systems that surround
them have the potential to provide support and positive influence, or can become the source
of further trauma. Children are swept up into consequences of the choices of parents, family
members and caregivers and the reactions of these surrounding systems to those choices.
Children are not consulted and often are not even considered in the process. Yet, the
aftermath of drugs and their accumulated consequences can leave children’s lives in ruins
with little hope or help to produce a tolerable day-to-day existence, let alone a positive future.
Efforts can be made individually and independently in every system that surrounds a child to
reduce injuries and trauma and to provide support and healing. Each system can work
independently to become more aware of the effects of drugs in the lives of children and to
create supportive structures and programs to minimize trauma and losses of important
relationships as they encounter these children. In addition, each system can work
collaboratively in a united effort to work for changes in programs and policies to consider the
needs of children in the context of any dealing with drugs and the outcomes of their use or
abuse.
Kids & Drugs
Family
The impact of drug use on children and families is overwhelming. The healthy care and
nurturing that children need to thrive is disrupted and their health and development suffer.
Living in a home with alcohol or drug abuse is one of the factors included in studies of
Adverse Childhood Experiences. These studies show that the presence of these factors in
the. lives of a child lead to negative consequences that will persist throughout life. The
trauma and losses that come from living with the effects of abuse of drugs and alcohol can
lead to a wide range of psychological,behavioral and physical health problems that injure
children and place additional stress on families and caregivers.
Who are the members of the family? Who are the children’s caregivers and what are their
needs? Are these needs being met? How well are these caregivers meeting the needs of
children in their care? What are the family’s attitudes about drugs and how are these
attitudes communicated to the children? How does drug use affect children and their
relationships? What is communicated to a child about what is happening as a result of drug
involvement with a parent or family member? Who does the communication? What can be
done to preserve relationships when significant people are in treatment, jail or in prison
programs? What happens when significant people are far away? Do visits happen? Phone
calls? Letters? What happens when family members return?
What services do parents, caregivers and families need? How can families be supported
and strengthened? What are family protective and resilience factors and how can they be
enhanced? Financial assistance? Mental Health? Treatment? Parenting skill training?
Childcare or respite care? Transportation? Mentoring? Tutoring? Recreation? Support
groups? Involvement in treatment and aftercare?
Kids & Drugs
Schools
For the better part of nine months, children spend the largest part of their day in school.
School provides the opportunity to get both an academic education and to learn the social
skills children need to get along with others. Children need this learning so they can
become responsible and independent adults; able to be employed and to live in healthy
relationships.. But when drugs are a part of a child’s life, through a family member’s use or
their own personal use, the child’s ability to learn will be impaired and educational and social
goals will be compromised. Do schools know who these children are and how to help them?
As schools are attempting to provide educational programs, children affected by drug use
are struggling with multiple issues. What can schools do when children are not ready and
able to learn as a result of drugs in their lives?. How do schools cope in this kind of child
and family social and emotional landscape? What kinds of responses and programs are
appropriate? Do schools know when children are affected by family members’ drug use or
incarceration? Do they know when these children are living with extended family or in foster
care? Are schools a part of planning, communicating and supporting a child’s relationship
with a parent or family member in treatment or when they are incarcerated? What can
schools do when children are using drugs? What is the school’s role and appropriate
response? How do schools partner with parents, families and community partners in
prevention, education, and intervention efforts?
Kids & Drugs
Community Agencies and Organizations
Community agencies and organizations can have an important role in
working with children and families affected by drugs. Exposure to the
consequences of drug use can affect children’s physical health, psychological
health, behavior and well-being.
What is the role of Mental Health organizations and programs? Churches?
Medical professionals? Family support programs? Childcare? Youth
Programs? Recreation Programs? Mentoring? What can these groups do
individually to provide support? How can these groups work together to
create collaborative services and supportive programs? What kind of
treatment approaches are used? What kind of resources are needed for
adequate prevention and intervention efforts?
Kids & Drugs
Civil Legal System
The influence of drugs on children’s lives can create involvement in state social
service agencies and civil courts through dependencies, divorces and child custody
issues or through truancy hearings. Through these types of proceedings decisions
are made that have both short-term and long-term life consequences for children.
Who will have custody of children when a parent is impaired by drug use and its
associated consequences? If families or parents are having problems with drugs,
what kinds of services or treatment is available? When are parental rights
terminated? Will children be placed in foster care or with a family member? For how
long? Can children visit with parents? What happens in divorces? How does drug
use affect custody, visitation and parental rights? What kind of drug evaluation will
be done? What are the standards? How do drug evaluations and treatment affect
these decisions? What is the process of follow up and oversight to ensure that
children’s’ best interests are ensured in this system? Who makes the decisions?
What kind of input does the family have in the process? What input does a child
have? What happens to siblings and extended family relationships?
Kids & Drugs
Criminal Legal System
There has been an unprecedented expansion of the United States prison population over the
past thirty years. This expansion has been largely driven by the changes in how laws, and the
courts, treat drug users and drug sellers. These changes have had profound effects on millions
who have committed no crime--the children and families of those caught up in this system.
This widespread incarceration of parents and family members has had a devastating effect on
children, families and the communities in which they live. Because of mandatory sentencing,
the losses and trauma that children suffer can last for years and create consequences that will
last for a lifetime.
But the pain and the suffering for children begins long before the loss of a parent or family
member to prison. Certainly the problems with drugs begin in the context of the family, but new
damage is added for a child from the point of arrest and accumulates throughout the criminal
legal process.
When a parent is arrested, do police officers ask if this person is a caregiver or significant
person in the life of a child as they put the handcuffs on? Do they consider the timing of arrests
to prevent children being witnesses? Do jails ask if prisoners have children and how they can
help these relationships be preserved? Do courts consider the needs and concerns of children
in the prosecution and sentencing of the offender? And once the offender is in prison, what
efforts are made to ensure the survival of a child’s relationship with that offender? Is there a
plan for supporting children and offenders as they attempt to re-enter the family from jail, prison
or work release? Are children and families a part of treatment programs? Do children have a
face and a voice from the beginning of this process in this system until the offender is reunited
with them? What about juvenile offenders? What is their history and what should be the
response to their criminal behavior? Can we continue to lock up more and more people? At
what cost?
Kids & Drugs
Government Federal/State/Local
Although systems may profoundly intervene in the lives of children when drugs are an
issue, there is no clear or consistent policies about how the various systems should
and do respond. There is a lack of information about how many children are affected
by all kinds of drug use, how they are affected, and the long term consequences and
costs to each individual child and the society as a whole. The inconsistency of rules
and laws create confusion and fragmented approaches in any efforts to address the
harm to our children.
Prohibition has failed to reduce crime or addiction and a “drug-free” society does not
seem to be realistic either. Our current strategy of locking up drug addicts is clearly
not working. The crime-drug cycle produces a higher and higher cost when measured
in both economic and human terms. Drug laws and drug policies should help people,
not cause them and their children and families more harm. What are the changes that
need to be made in in drug policies and laws to reduce the cost to children, their
families and communities? How do these changes get made? Who needs to be
involved? What are the answers? More prisons? More treatment? Legalization?
In addition, legal drugs like alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs, and our policies
and laws that govern their use, create mixed messages for children about drug use
and abuse. All children and families are affected by the the drugs present in their
lives. How do we create more consistency? What are appropriate laws and rules to
govern all kinds of drug use? When does use become abuse? When do the rights of
individuals to choose for themselves become a question as they begin to cause harm
to children in their care? Where do we draw the lines and who draws them?