EFFECTIVENESS OF DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION PROGRAMS AMONG SCHOOLS IN DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

This research was done in order to analyse the need for effective drug awareness training programs, to identify and analyse the key characteristics of effective drug prevention programs and to propose a framework for effective delivery of Drug Prevention Programs in schools of UAE. Hence, a survey was done to get to the findings of the research. As a result, a quantitative study among school children has been conducted across 4 schools involving 201 students. This research, with particular emphasis on the effectiveness of drug and substance abuse prevention programs among schools in Dubai Emirates. The findings of this study have shown that there is a need for effective drug awareness training programs, as the results have shown that 11.6% of all students have indeed used drugs. The results have also shown that there are three main characteristics which will make the drug prevention programs more effective. The three key characteristics are drug awareness training program through counselling, involving parents and community as well as using interactive program and multimedia in order to boost student’s confidence and increase resistance skills against the use of drugs. Hence, it is recommended that drug awareness programs alone will not be fully effective in reducing the use of drugs among students in Dubai, UAE. i Correspondence: email t.alimurah@gmail.com Tariq Ali Murah, S. M. Ferdous Azam, Ali Khatibi, Jacquline Tham EFFECTIVENESS OF DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION PROGRAMS AMONG SCHOOLS IN DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES European Journal of Public Health Studies Volume 2 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 67

among school children. In order to achieve the aim of this study, the following research objectives are set: 1) To study and analyse the need for effective drug awareness training programs 2) To identify and analyse the key characteristics of effective drug prevention programs

Research Methods
Review of literature on research methods indicates that quantitative and qualitative approaches that are two of the most widely used approaches (Dawson, 2002). Each of these approaches have advantages and disadvantages, which are discussed below. This study used quantitative approach to answer research question. The sample size of 200 potential respondents is selected to evaluate the effectiveness of drug training programs in schools which have sample sizes of 200 -300. The sample size of 200 participants who are exposed to drug prevention training will ensure that the author obtain the data needed for the study. The study participants will be chosen from among the students from schools where drug education was delivered by concerned Health and Police authorities. This will ensure that only participants who have been exposed to drug training programs will be included. They are in an ideal position to participate in the study and share their experiences. Data collection instrument is the questionnaire. The questionnaire includes 37 questions used different types of scales, from a simple yes and no scale to a 5 point Likert scale where 1= Strongly Disagree, 2= Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4= Agree, 5= Strongly Agree. The data collected from the survey was organized and extensively cleaned to prepare it for analysis. The data was initially organized in excel and was then pulled into SPSS software.

Problem Statement
The growing abuse of drugs among school children is a cause for concern. This may be partly due to lack of awareness among school children on the negative consequences of their actions. Therefore, concerned authorities and educators have a duty to create awareness so that school children can be better informed. Drug prevention programs in schools are a top priority in most Western countries. This scourge was not far from the monitoring of the National Council of Law on social issues in schools for the care of harmful cases of circuits of blood and brain circuits and drugs (Obrien, 2017: 10).
There are visible dimensions for the problematic phenomenon of drugs related to abuse and abusers, and yet it has hidden dimensions related to those who are not abusers but have psychological and social readiness if the conditions allow them to, we call those the vulnerable, the students who belong to this category were represented by 10% of nonuser students, who acknowledged that they are ready to take drugs if they were given the chance (Zhou, 2018: 181).
The main problem that the author address in this study is the lack of literature in the context of UAE that assess drug abuse in this country. There is also very little research on the longer-term effects of drug abuse programmes in UAE. In order for drugs education in schools to impact on drug use among young adults the effects would have to last a long time. They would also have to be targeted at the group of young people who are most at risk. In practice, these are likely to be excludes, truants and young people not attending traditional schools.

Significance of Study
The researcher focused on view of the previous studies on the social and behavioural side of drugs, in addition to having a relationship with Sharia and religion. The outcome of this study bears great advantages to officials in the country to control drug abuse. The problem of drugs that threaten school students is one of the most important problems addressed by the UAE in various scientific and security means, for example in this study Dubai which is a city in the UAE is being used a placed where the study is being done. In developing a country, human resource is vital to building a nation. If the current students, be it in the schools or in the universities are involved in drug abused, then the future supply of workers to the local labour market will be badly affected as we know drugs abused will lead to many problems i.e. health matters, crime related issues and many others.

The Impact of Drug Abuse
Crimes of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances come on top of the list of crimes that will generate money (Economic andSocial Council, 1993 -2004). Drugs in general is a group of drugs plant or chemical, or industrial, which proves that the abuse or habitual or addiction leads to an imbalance physical activity and psychological abusers, and the resulting health problems, economic, social, political and security for users and those around him from the family and the Labour Department, Whenever an outbreak of abuse increased the dimensions of these problems and their effects spread to the community and the international community, but also (Ali, 1992:142). Despite all the efforts the local national, and international efforts at all levels of bilateral, regional and global, all statistics issued by different countries or specialized organizations, refer to the worsening drug problem in all parts of the world (AlAfifi, 2010).
It has expressed growing concern over this problem, many global and regional conferences, including the Eighth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and treatment of offenders, international cooperation in crime prevention and criminal justice in the context of development, where he was the recommendations: that drugs are terrible threat posed by illicit trafficking Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which falls among the worst crimes that humanity faces (Aloraib, 2006: 6).

The Impact of Drugs in UAE
Since the beginning of the eighties of this century has become a drug problem facing the UAE society where the number of addicts increased seizures, and there was universal from the responsible authorities on the size of the problem. To this day, one could not give accurate data on the number of drug addicts, or the number of citizens involved in narcotics, despite the large number involved in the drug-related crimes, but the number of known or recorded is a little bit (Mohammed, 1998).
The drug problems, both at the individual level or generally, are bifurcated or social complexity and the extensive damage to social, economic, health and secure life. It is a serious pest undermining the elements of the society by infesting from within, and by threatening the lives of the youth by making them homeless and lost. This phenomenon is receiving increasing attention from specialized research centers, scientists, experts and officials on both (Aloraib, 2006: 3).
Fundamentally, drugs are chemical substances that can make a change in the physical activity of the human person when abused. Drugs are sometimes used in medical treatment; but when taken for reasons other than medical, they are called in this situation (drug abuse) and may cause physical and psychological damage (Hans et al., 2003: 98).
Drugs are legally defined as a group of addictive substances, which would lead to the poisoning of the central nervous system. Cultivation, manufacturing and circulation is prohibited except for purposes specified by law. They shall be used only by authorized personnel. The legal definition of substance abuse is: "the element or compound or the solution containing opium or cannabis or coca or heroin, when abused by a person it would cool the body or mind or irritation of feeling, because most of the substance must contain opium or hashish or heroin or coca which, if used in non-medical purposes and industrial matters would lead to a state of habit or addiction (Walid, 2001: 151).
Through the above definitions, it is clear that drugs may be the result of the impact of the abuse on the brain and the body functions. This includes the legal and the illegal drugs and the medical prescriptions and the volatile matters. It is evident that when young people in UAE involved with influence in the drug offense, no one can predict how the authorities are treating him and could not find his name in the records of the police or the courts, and the same goes for clinics, as the small number of addicts registered nothing to do with the actual number. Some addicts travel abroad for treatment, while some of them to address the subject home, and the clinics are found in health records on the numbers of simple drug addicts usually belong to the families do not have a great social influence (The National Newspaper UAE, 2018).
The following are some types of drugs according to the source, we have most the popular types of drugs in the UAE, noting that most of the scientific references used in this part are the Arab sources; because the field of study is in an Arab country, and this gives credentials to the most powerful identification of the extent of the quality of drugs (Mohammed, 1995: 12;AlAfifi, 2008).

Natural Drugs
Natural drugs are in the parent plants grown in the soil and is known to man, and contain leaves or flowers or fruits containing the narcotic substance. The most important of these plants are: cannabis or hashish, and opium (Humaidan, 2008: 10). These plants involve:

Hashish
Cannabis material of the oldest drug known to humans, one of the natural drugs that are extracted from the cannabis plant, which can be described as a plant of a single-sex in the sense of plant memorandum and other feminine individual plant where it is grown annually, and legs jagged, and the fibres are used in the manufacture of ropes, and are called the name of the funniest hashish cannabis lush (Mansour, 14).

Opium
Is the juice resulting from the fruit of the poppy tree that had not yet matured. This is a tree with beautiful red or purple or white flowers and with fruits in a capsule shape ranging in size from the size of an orange so small in size of the coconut and contains the substance that is white sticky with a pungent smell and bitter in taste (Al-Awadi, 2007: 5).

Qatt
QAT grows in the mountainous wetlands areas and is cultivated in the fields. It takes a period of six weeks to mature depending on rainfall. The length of the Qat plant is of 3-5 meters, sometimes up to 25 meters in appropriate climatic conditions (Hamidi, 2001: 10).

Drugs and Crime
Drugs are related to crime in multiple ways. Most directly, it is a crime to use, possess, manufacture, or distribute drugs classified as having a potential for abuse (such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and amphetamines). Drugs are also related to crime through the effects they have on the user's behavior and by generating violence and other illegal activity in connection with drug trafficking. The chart below summarizes the various ways that drugs and crime are related (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1999: 18). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conducts an annual National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) that asks individuals living in households about their drug and alcohol use and their involvement in crimes (table 1). Provisional data for 1997 show that respondents arrested in the past year for possession or sale of drugs and driving under the influence had the highest percentage of illicit drug use in the past year. Past year illicit drug users were also about 16 times more likely than nonusers to report being arrested and booked for larceny or theft; more than 14 times more likely to be arrested and booked for such offenses as driving under the influence, drunkenness, or liquor law violations; and more than 9 times more likely to be arrested and booked on an assault charge (Substance, 1999: 11). The dangers of drug abuse is increasing day after day, to the point that has become the face of these dangers real battle and fierce, we fight with the merchants of these toxins that have become as much great power and wealth, and operated by organizations and personalities of major Third World countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America.
Order to do so, no longer limited to people individually, but that there are international organizations is the threat to the political level is a clear and serious, there are individual countries, and behind this growing involvement in the drug world, and that this international organization that uses drugs as a weapon of war against the peoples targeted, and that Aimed at laying weakness and vulnerability among the youth of the nation's target, which would lose all his control with the drug and for his vigorous and succumb to decay and disintegration, which is achieved by drugs more than any other weapon (Tradeau et al., 2003).
Analysts believe that the Arab peoples come on top of people targeted by international organizations, not the end of major behind this is social breakdown, but the objective will be followed by economic collapse and the surrender of the will of external powers, and this is very no political objective in any place in the world throughout history (Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs: Reference, 81).
This study suggests that drug abused students are prone to diseases such as HIV, AIDS and Hepatitis B and C, brain damage which will lead to impaired learning abilities, amnesia and memory problems, impaired reasoning, perception and intuition and increased or decreased socialization.

Treatment of Drug Abuse
Several studies have tried over the past two decades, identifying the origins and pathways of drug abuse and addiction, how to start the problem, and how they evolve. Have been identified several factors that help to differentiate among those most vulnerable to drug abuse than those who are less prone to drug abuse (Goldberg et al., 2000: 54). To focus on the path of danger, and prevention programs can research-based early intervention in child development to strengthen protective factors and reduce risks long before the development of problem behaviours (Johnston et al., 2002: 41).
The problem of drug addiction, with their social, economic, security and religious, educational, and other, and are therefore within the scope of the attention of most organs of the State and its various institutions. The issue of addiction and drug addicts, is the issue of security of the community primarily, and therefore we are required to deal with this problem in a new and comprehensive, if war should be a war cleansing popular First, no state or one of its organs are capable of confronting the enemy only, because the enemy of ourselves, so come the importance of social institutions in the face of this phenomenon and treatment. Therefore, we will allocate this section to examine the role of various social institutions in the treatment of drug abuse (Shulamith, 2006: 57). The prevention of drug within the family is the building of internal control and strict resistance stems from the depths of their children firmly and effectively. And rely on the family a big role in the upbringing of their children and prevent them from drifting behind the evils of drugs and stand easy prey in the hands of the broadcast toxins, lies in sound education and nurturing the right stemming from the teachings of religion and the prevailing social values and sound; where there should be educational policy and clear inside the perimeter of the family, and also in creating a family atmosphere within the family and be a magnet for people dominated by love and intimacy submerge all the possibilities (Shulamith, 2006: 58).
This study find that parents are role models to their children even if they did so intentionally; therefore, their commitment to religious teachings and foster these values in children gives them a strong immunity against falling into the quagmire of drugs. The education of children, the sanctity of the experience, drug abuse and to refrain comes behavior that generally religious aims to prevent behavioral abnormalities in general, and should teach children the facts and risks of drug use and its impact on self and society, with parents on drug abuse gives them the ability to persuade children not to fall prey to drugs, one of the most important pillars for the prevention, that it is necessary that there be limits to the behavior of children, and must not be allowed to bypass these limits and take actions to, and follow-up behavior of the children and modified if it is negative and strengthened if the positive and note the sudden changes that may occur in the conduct and effective response at the time, and knowledge of its causes and rushing to find solutions that are exacerbated by the constant.

Results and Discussions
A sample size of 300 students who are exposed to the drug awareness program were targeted for the quantitative study. However, only 201 duly filled questionnaires were received and were included in the study. The sample size of 201 participants who are exposed to drug awareness programs will ensure that we obtain sufficient data needed for the study and will be representative of the school population.

ANOVA
One-way ANOVA is employed to address research questions that focus on the difference in the means of one dependent variable and one independent variable with two or more levels (Keppel, 1991). Essentially, analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used as a test of means for two or more populations (Malhotra & Birks, 2006). In this study, the independent variable, Age has several different age groups. The dependent variables are 7 variables related to drug use as shown in table below (Kerr et al, 2002, p.79). The ANOVA test conducted for this study did not show any variance in groups by Age (with one variable exception), Father's and Mother's education as shown in Table-1 below. However, significant variance was found for the variable 'I never used drugs among different age groups' (p = 0.45, and Sig is less than 0.05).

Correlation Test
Correlation (r), is the most widely used statistic, summarizing the strength of association between two metric variables. It is used to determine whether a linear or straight-line relationship exists between two variables. It indicates the degree to which the variation in one variable, is related to the variation in another variable (Malhotra & Birks, 2006: 512). The correlation test was run for 7 variables and 9 variables. From the correlation test conducted it is noticed that there is a strong correlation and significant association (p value= .000) between drug usage among students and examinations and the need to feel happy and joyful. In the second correlation table, a strong correlation was found (p value= .000) between students receiving drug awareness information student confidence building and resistance skills as well as in changing their views about drugs. Furthermore, a strong correlation and significant association was found (p value= .007 and p value=.000) between drug awareness training program which was of an interactive nature and used multimedia with student confidence building and resistance skills as well as in changing their views about drugs. This indicates the effectiveness of interactive drug awareness training programs using multimedia. Lastly, it was found that a strong correlation and significant association existed (p value= .000) between drug awareness training involving counselling and involving parents and community and with student confidence building and resistance skills as well as in changing their views about drugs. This indicates the effectiveness of using counselling and involving parents and the community in drug awareness training programs.
From the findings of this study, for the first objective of this research it can be concluded that there is a need for effective drug awareness training programs, as the results have shown that 11.6% of all students have indeed used drugs, whereby from this total number, 12.8% of male and 10.6% of female have used drugs in their life as a student. For the second objective of this study which is to identify and analyse the key characteristics of effective drug prevention programs, whereby the findings of the research have shown that drug awareness training program through counselling and involving parents as well as community have managed to enhanced student's confidence building and resistance skills in addition to changing their views about drugs.
In comparison to the result of the current study and another study done in Westchester County, New York (1995) which used a pre-test and post-test comparison group design with a sample of 425 students in three alternative secondary schools serving high-risk, multi-problem adolescents. After a year, the evaluation showed decreases in substance use and reductions in negative attitudes and behaviors among students participating in Project SUCCESS (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students, this program places highly trained professionals in schools to provide a range of substance use prevention and early intervention services), including: a 37% decrease in substance abuse, 23 percent of Project SUCCESS students quit using substances, decreased problem behavior and decreased associations with peers who used substances.

Conclusions
Even though, drugs used among students in the UAE is still low compared to the students from the USA, nonetheless the relevant government department and NGOs in the UAE have to double up their efforts to ensure this trend of drug abuse among school students does not surge beyond the current level and hopefully through coordinated programs implemented will bring about a successful effort in bringing down this number of drug used among school students in the UAE.
Despite the number for effective drug awareness training programs in UAE is not as high comparing to students in other countries like USA, nonetheless, continuous efforts especially from government bodies for example the Ministry of Education, Ministry Of Health And Prevention and The Dubai And Abu Dhabi Police are crucial to ensure that the drug awareness training programs have been implemented to ensure the number of students who are involved in drugs will be reduced significantly as drug abused will lead to emotional problem such as anxiety, depression, mood swings, suicidal thoughts and schizophrenia.
It is also concluded that drug awareness training program also which was of an interactive in nature and using multimedia have also enhanced student's confidence building and resistance skills besides changing their views about drugs; thus, indicating the effectiveness of interactive drug awareness training programs via using multimedia. The finding of this study has also indicated that there is a strong correlation found between students receiving drug awareness information student confidence building and resistance skills as well as in changing their views about drugs.

Recommendations
The prevention of drug within the family is the building of internal control and to resist tough stems from the depths of their children firmly and effectively. And rely on the family a big role in the upbringing of their children and prevent them from drifting behind the evils of drugs and stand easy prey in the hands of the broadcast toxins, and is in sound education and nurture the right stemming from the teachings of religion and the prevailing social values and sound; where there should be educational policy and clear in the family , and also in creating a family atmosphere within the family is attractive to children dominated by love and intimacy submerge all the possibilities available.
Another suggestion is to focus on innovative approaches to reduce the tendencies by students to use drugs by reducing the accessibility of drugs to students. Higher Education Loans Boards and other student's financiers including parents should consider reducing the monies given to the student in cash form and instead adopt e-wallets where students get pre-paid electronic cards that can only pay for stationeries, books and food stuff. This will reduce the number of students who utilize the money meant for school purposes and their up keep to overindulge in drugs.