Part 4: Justification: Children, Drug Use, and Dependence

Part 4: J ustification 171 Part 4: Justification: Children, Drug Use, and Dependence Part 4 focuses on the policy justification of protecting people, especially children, from the harmful effects of drugs, including drug dependence. This premise is not challenged. Let us take it as read, and agreed by all, that it is not a good idea for children to use drugs, and that the use of drugs at an early age can be especially harmful— physically, socially, and psychologically. 1 This is clear from a number of the chapters in this section. But policies aimed at dealing with this concern must be interrogated. Is the desire to protect children from drug use and dependence justification for the measures that have been adopted? And what does a closer look say about future strategies? In this section, five very different chapters ask searching questions of the policy responses that have been put in place to deal with drug use among children and young people, and of some of the assumptions underlying prevailing views of drugs, drug use, and dependence. The first chapter in this section is “Youth Drug-Use Research and the Missing Pieces in the Puzzle: How Can Researchers Support the Next Generation of Harm Reduction Approaches?” by Catherine Cook and Adam Fletcher. The chapter cuts to the root of this central justification for the war on drugs, challenging what we really know and do not know about drug use among young people. 2 It explores the extent of our knowledge regarding drug use among young people around the world, concluding that far too little is known about emerging patterns of drug use in low- and middle-income countries, rendering the global picture incomplete. It goes on to challenge data collection methodologies and the predominance of “war on drugs” discourses that inhibit a deeper understanding of routes into problematic use and potential drug-related harms. According to the authors, the result is that the most vulnerable young people are excluded from the existing empirical evidence and their needs are ignored. The chapter concludes with recommendations for a new research agenda to inform more appropriate and effective youth- centered harm reduction interventions. 3 Michael Shiner’s chapter, “Taking Drugs Together: Early Adult

Part 4: Justification: Children, Drug Use, and Dependence

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