NCDA' s ganja education programme enters secondary schools

The National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) is on track with its Ganja Education Programme, according to Michael Tucker, executive director of the NCDA, who announced that they have executed a peer-to-peer training throughout secondary schools islandwide.

Tucker argued that the NCDA's #TalkDiTruth campaign, which facilitates peer-to-peer training for students aged 11-18, has been effective in raising awareness on the benefits and harmful effects of ganja, without the pressures associated with being lectured by an adult.

"Talk Di Truth' is not an anti-ganja campaign, it is an education campaign and so the training covers the effects of smoking and abuse of ganja on youth, as well as its medical benefits," said Tucker.

"There is no escaping the topic of the benefits. When we talk about ganja, we acknowledge that Jamaicans have been using it for years in different ways for medicine," Tucker added.

Secondary schools have been targeted with the aim to reach approximately 100 schools across the island. The programme is currently in 67 schools, and more than 1,200 peer leaders have already been trained.

THREE-PHASE INITIATIVE

The peer-led high-school intervention is a three-phase initiative that will involve selecting 20 peer leaders from each of the secondary schools who will then train their grade level peers to make a total of 400 students per school.

The third phase requires the various groups to create an edutainment package presented in a #TalkDiTruth School Day to the entire school population. This way, all the students in each of the targeted schools will be exposed to the information, whether directly or indirectly.

It is expected that by the end of the intervention, 2,000 peer leaders will be trained, 40,000 secondary-school students will receive training from their peers, and 400,000 students impacted across the island.