Landless, P. N.

McBride, Duane C

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Andrews University

Andrews UniversityDigital Commons @ Andrews UniversityFaculty Publications Behavioral SciencesJanuary 2013Substance Abuse: A Major Global Health IssueP. N. LandlessLoma Linda UniversityDuane C. McBrideAndrews University, mcbride@andrews.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/behavioral-pubsPart of the Social and Behavioral Sciences CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Behavioral Sciences at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted forinclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contactrepository@andrews.edu.Recommended CitationLandless, P. N. and McBride, Duane C., "Substance Abuse: A Major Global Health Issue" (2013). Faculty Publications. Paper 13.http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/behavioral-pubs/13Continued on page 55Duane C. McBride3The World Health Organization (WHO) estimatesthat some 315 million people, or almost seven per-cent of the world population, used an illicit drugin the last year. Injection drug use remains a majormeans of HIV transmission around the world.1WHO es-timates that up to 2.5 million deaths per year are directlyrelated to alcohol consumption, causing nearly four per-cent of all deaths. Alcohol consumption is one of the topthree major health problems worldwide.2 The costs ofsubstance abuse include the direct cost of health-care de-livery treating the consequences of use, the expenses re-lated to criminal prosecution and incarceration, drug-and alcohol-related traf ficfatalities, the wide-rang-ing harm to families ofusers, and the impact oneconomic de velop mentand productivity. Con-sequently, WHO hasconcluded that alcoholand substance abuse aremajor health issuesglobally in all areas ofeconomic development,hu man health, and wel l - being.Ellen G. White andthe other founders ofthe Seventh-day Ad-ventist Church were major participants in and supportersof early temperance efforts. The early church’s messagewas consistent, well-articulated, and powerful. For manydecades, starting with the 1860s, our stand on temper-ance formed part of a larger Protestant proclamationabout the destructive power of alcohol and drugs. How-ever, more recently, the voices of most other churcheshave grown silent; in fact, some of the traditionallystrongest supporters of the temperance cause now allowmembers and employees to use alcohol.3 The Seventh-day Adventist Church remains one of the few denomina-tions to maintain a firm position on abstinence. However,the Adventist Church itself also faces the reality of chang-ing attitudes and behavior toward alcohol.4 As the articleby Landless and Williams documents (and critiques), sci-entific and popular media have touted the supposedhealth benefits of alcohol. But in spite of media attempts to encourage more pos-itive attitudes toward alcohol use, data, mostly from theNorth American Division, consistently show that Advent-ist young people use alcohol and drugs at a two-thirdslower rate than youth in the general population. And thatrate does not appear to be increasing.5 Adventist schoolsmust seek effective ways to uphold church standards andto transmit our historical position on alcohol and druguse. However, we also must develop redemptive policies todeal with students who experiment with or initiate use ofsubstances, and establishstrategies to protect themajority of our youngpeople from the influenceof those who use danger-ous substances.This special issue ofTHE JOURNAL OF ADVENT-IST EDUCATION addresses anumber of issues relatedto substance use. Threearticles focus on schoolpolicymaking: The oneled by Judith Fisher ex-plores how to create re-demptive policies at thecollege level, while theone with Curtis VanderWaal as primary author targets theacademy level. Combined with this helpful material is anarticle that focuses specifically on redemptive approachesto use when dealing with students who struggle with sub-stance-abuse problems, also with VanderWaal as lead au-thor. This article shares a portion of the scientific researchthat has identified a wide variety of factors that protectour youth from engaging in substance use. Alina Baltazaris the lead author of an article that presents the latest sci-entific information on protective factors against high-riskbehavior, such as parental bonding, strong spirituality,service, and adult mentoring—areas that can be developedor strengthened in our schools. The article by Peter Landless and David Williams care-fully examines the latest scientific evidence regarding theG U E S T  E D I T O R I A Lhttp:// jae.adventist.org                                                                The Journal of Adventist Education • December 2013/January 2014Substance Abuse: A Major Global Health Issue Peter N. Landless8. National Drug Intelligence Center, “Infor-mation Bulletin: Drugs, Youth, and the Internet”(October 2002, archived 2006): http://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs2/2161/index.htm. 9. Michael Bihari, “Foreign Pharmacies—Buying Drugs From Canada and Mexico” (Feb-ruary 25, 2010): http://healthinsurance.about. com/od/prescriptiondrugs/a/foreign_pharmacies.htm. 10. Gilbert Quintero, “Rx for a Party: A Qual-itative Analysis of Recreational PharmaceuticalUse in a Collegiate Setting,” Journal of AmericanCollege Health 58:1 (July/August 2009):64-70. 11. Adolescent Substance Abuse KnowledgeBase, “Pharm Parties” (2007): http://www.adolescent-substance-abuse.com/pharm-parties.html.12. Heather Zaykowski and Whitney D.Gunter, “Gender Differences in VictimizationRisk: Exploring the Role of Deviant Lifestyles”(2013): http://tbdresearch.org/articles/2013gdvr. pdf.13. National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Drug-Facts: Drugged Driving” (December 2010):http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/drugged-driving. 14. See http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/drugs/prescription_drug_abuse.html. 15. Duane C. McBride, et al., “State Metham-phetamine Precursor Policies and Changes inSmall Toxic Lab Methamphetamine Production,”Journal of Drug Issues 41:2 (2011):253-281.16. Drug Abuse Warning Network, TheDAWN Report, “Highlights of the 2010 DrugAbuse Warning Network (DAWN) Findings onDrug-Related Emergency Department Visits”(July 2, 2012): http://www.samhsa.gov/data/ 2k12/ DAWN096/SR096EDHighlights2010.pdf. 17. Ibid.18. U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices, Substance Abuse and Mental HealthServices Administration, Center for BehavioralHealth Statistics and Quality, “Results From the2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health:Summary of National Findings” (September2011): http://www.samhsa.gov/data/nsduh/ 2k10nsduh/2k10results.htm.19. Magnus A. B. Axelsson, et al., “Use of andAttitudes Towards the Prescribing GuidelinesBooklet in Primary Health Care Doctors” (Sep-tember 2008): http://www.biomedcentral.com/ 1472- 6904/8/8.20. McBride, et al., “State MethamphetaminePrecursor Policies,” op. cit.55supposed health benefits as well as the negative consequencesof alcohol use and abuse. Harvey Burnett’s article, which fo-cuses on a major international school-based prevention pro-gram called D.A.R.E., provides excellent practical suggestionson how to adapt its activities to Adventist schools. Finally, anarticle led by Gary Hopkins focuses on a more recent phenom-enon, the abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs,and offers recommendations for school policymaking. Throughout the world today, substance abuse is a majorhealth and human tragedy. Seventh-day Adventists play amajor role in research and policy in this health area. This spe-cial issue of the JOURNAL was produced in collaboration withthe two church-sponsored organizations most active in sub-stance-abuse policy and research: the International Commis-sion for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency(ICPA) and the Institute for the Prevention of Addiction(IPA). The ICPA, directed by Peter Landless, has been recog-nized by the United Nations, and plays an active role through-out the world promoting policies and practices to reduce sub-stance abuse. The IPA, directed by Duane McBride, conductsprimary outreach on the etiology and prevention of substanceabuse as well as best-practice policies. We believe that it is im-portant for the Seventh-day Adventist Church to continue tosupport and conduct primary research on preventing sub-stance abuse and to advocate at the highest global levels forpolicies and practices that address this major global healthissue.—Peter N. Landless and Duane C. McBride.Peter N. Landless, M.B., B.Ch., MFGP (SA), M.Med., FCP (SA),CBNC, FACC, FASNC, is Director of Health Ministries at the Gen-eral Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Mary-land, and Executive Director of the International Commission forthe Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (ICPA).The Coordinator for this special issue, Duane C. McBride, Ph.D.,is Professor and Chair of the Behavioral Science Department at An-drews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and Director of theInstitute for the Prevention of Addictions, also at Andrews Univer-sity. He has conducted and published research on a wide variety oftopics including drug abuse, enhancing adolescent resilience, andpublic health policy. For a number of years, Dr. McBride has servedin a consulting capacity to the National Institutes of Health, the Uni-versity of Miami School of Medicine, the National Institute of Jus-tice, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The editorial staffof the JOURNAL express heartfelt appreciation for his commitment togetting this special issue into print, and for the many hours he spentidentifying authors, topics, and peer reviewers, evaluating manu-scripts, chasing down sources and miscellaneous information, andcheerfully responding to hundreds of questions from the Editor.REFERENCES1. UNODC, World Drug Report 2013 (United Nations publication): http:// www.unodc.org/wdr/.2. Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (World Health Organization,2011):http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_ report/  en/.3. Wheaton College Alcohol Policy: http://wheatoncollege.edu/ policies/  home/ alcohol/; Mark Oppenheimer, “In Culture Shift, Evangelical College LiftsAlcohol Ban,” New York Times (September 27, 2013): http://www.nytimes. com/ 2013/09/28/us/evangelical-college-lifts-alcohol- ban-in-culture-shift. html? pagewanted=all&_r=0. Accessed September 27 to October 6, 2013.      4. Gary L. Hopkins, et al., “Substance Use Among Students Attending aChristian University That Strictly Prohibits the Use of Substances,” Journal ofResearch on Christian Education 13:1 (2004):23-39; H. W. Helm, Jr., L. M. Lien,Duane C. McBride, and B. Bell, “Comparison of Alcohol and Other Drug UseTrends Between a Prohibitionist University and National Data Sets,” Journal ofResearch on Christian Education 18:2 (2009):190-205; Duane C. McBride, Pa-tricia B. Mutch, and Dale D. Chitwood, “Religious Belief and the Initiation andPrevention of Drug Use Among Youth,” In Intervening With Drug-Involved Youth(Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, 1996), pp. 110-130; Duane C.McBride, Patricia Mutch, Roger Dudley, and A. Julian, “Prevalence and Corre-lates of Alcohol and Drug Use Among Adult Members of the Seventh- day Adventist Church,” Report to the North American Division of theSeventh-day Adventist Church, 1989.5. Ibid.; Alina M. Baltazar, et al., Executive Summary: Andrews UniversityRisk and Protective Factor Survey (August 22, 2012).http:// jae.adventist.org                                                                                   The Journal of Adventist Education • December 2013/January 2014Guest Editorial Continued from page 3

Substance Abuse: A Major Global Health Issue

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Substance Abuse: A Major Global Health Issue

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