Children and young people need real role models and systemic solutions, not patching holes
A minor shot his peers. A boy was beaten by his classmates. Violence among children in schools. Children of younger ages using drugs. Headlines we often read in the media. And then come quick solutions. Lectures are organized for children and youth on how it is wrong to beat other children, how they shouldn’t carry weapons in schools, and drugs are of course prohibited by law, so where did they even get these things? Occasionally, a psychoactive substance is shown as part of the presentation. Former drug users are invited to share their experiences of what they went through, how they got out of it, and now live a happy life.
Why is this wrong? Because there are no instant solutions for anything, especially not for the healthy lives of children and young people. Because lectures, without the development of key social skills in children and youth, can have the opposite effect—they might learn incorrect information and actually become curious to try a particular substance they may not have even known existed. Not to mention how wrong it is to give space to a former drug user in front of children. It’s great that they recovered, but it’s not great if this triggers even one child to go through the same experience. Because, although intended with good intentions to show a bad example of the path they shouldn’t take, it might be exciting for young people to go through similar things, thinking “look, someone was at rock bottom but now everything is fine.” But is it? And what about all the other examples where people didn’t recover, where they didn’t find their “happy” ending?
There is only one path to health: effective prevention! Prevention is not a sprint, but a marathon. The path to health is a race that lasts a lifetime. Prevention is continuous work, not a reaction to a problem. Prevention must be planned and systemic. Interventions with children and young people should be long-term and age-appropriate, but most importantly, they must be proven and beneficial for them. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, significant funds are allocated at various levels for so-called prevention programs, the majority of which have no evidence or indicators to show that they are effective (positively).
Association for Addiction Prevention NARKO-NE, implements scientifically-based and proven effective preventive methods in working with its users. In order to reach as many children and young people as possible with preventive interventions, the Association continuously works on educating key individuals who work with children and youth (teachers, educators, psychologists, social workers), as well as decision-makers and policy creators, since they are the ones who decide which preventive programs will be funded. And we want only those programs that benefit children and youth to be funded, don’t we?
The employees of the Association NARKO-NE are the only licensed trainers for conducting training based on the European Prevention Curriculum (EUPC) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This curriculum is a key resource in the EU for advocating the implementation of effective and proven prevention approaches. The importance of these trainings and this approach is also testified by a training participant, Dragan Vukadin, Head of the Department for Combating Drug Abuse at the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
It is very important for me to understand the science-based prevention material so that I can act correctly in my work and further pass on this knowledge to my colleagues while advocating for effective preventive strategies. The Ministry of Security of B&H supports all activities of non-governmental organizations closely related to our field. I believe that the NARKO-NE Association can achieve a lot in advocating evidence-based prevention in B&H. It will require a lot of effort and work, as outdated approaches are still used in practice, but the results will be visible because NARKO-NE is an organization that has already demonstrated expertise and persistence in its work.
The wellbeing of children and young people is not the task of one person or one institution. For children and adolescents, there are two main environments for the prevention of psychoactive substance use – family and school, but the work doesn’t end there. According to research conducted by the NARKO-NE Association in 2024, every fifth child between the ages of 13 and 17 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is at risk of addictive behaviors due to poor quality use of their free time. It is essential to create a safe and encouraging environment in the community where young people will have opportunities for personal development and the opportunity to grow into healthy, successful individuals.
NARKO-NE strives, in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, both governmental and non-governmental, to work towards creating such a healthy environment for young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Nadija Bandić, Assistant Minister at the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, and also one of the participants in the EUPC training, emphasizes the importance of effective programs:
What I thought I knew about preventive programs was shown to me in a completely different light, especially regarding which intervention methods are effective and which can be harmful. Everything I learned about the European Prevention Curriculum, we will strive to integrate into a very important document. Namely, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has adopted the initiative from the Federal Ministry of Education and Science and the NARKO-NE Association to create the first comprehensive strategy for addiction prevention, which is currently in the finalization process.
A safe environment and adequate, effective programs are crucial for children and young people to develop the necessary life skills and strengthen their personalities, as challenges will always arise, and new trends and drugs will continue to emerge. Therefore, it is essential to empower children and youth to resist these influences. Ultimately, if we consider the economic aspect, prevention is very important because every one convertible mark invested in a quality program and prevention system can save the state up to 10 BAM in treatment and the costs of managing the consequences of addiction.
*Association NARKO-NE has made significant strategic progress in the field of addiction prevention in Bosnia and Herzegovina during 2023 and 2024, with the support of the Core grant from the regional SMART Balkan project – Civil Society for a Connected Western Balkans. This project is implemented by the Center for Civil Society Promotion (CPCD) BiH, the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) North Macedonia, and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) Albania, and is financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway.
Azra Halilović
