{"id":30632,"date":"2026-06-26T17:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=30632"},"modified":"2026-06-26T17:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:54:08","slug":"screening-shows-alarming-levels-of-juvenile-substance-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/screening-shows-alarming-levels-of-juvenile-substance-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Screening shows alarming levels of juvenile substance abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>-MOH tackling issue from multiple fronts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">-by Celestine Chacon<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alarming levels of substance use among schoolchildren in Guyana have been uncovered through recent health screenings. For instance, almost half of the more than 6000 secondary school children screened had consumed alcohol and a significant number of students also vape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking at the observance of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 2026, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony described drug trafficking as a complex global challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He noted that this challenge cannot be addressed by any single country or agency\u2026 particularly as this is a concern even at the school level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Ministry of Health has conducted health screenings in nursery, primary and secondary schools across Guyana, collecting data from approximately 90,000 students over the past two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;<strong>In early this year, We looked at approximately 6,039 students that we screened at the secondary school level. And of those what we found was that in the questionnaire, at least 43% of them said they have consumed alcohol\u2026..And the next more prevalent thing was vaping. So 32% of these children said they would usually vape. And that must be alarming to us<\/strong>,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond alcohol and vaping, the screenings found that <strong>five percent<\/strong> of students admitted to using cannabis, while <strong>0.8 percent<\/strong> reported using other illicit drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Minister stressed that these findings highlight the need for urgent intervention, particularly in light of peer pressure within schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;<strong>I think what we need to start doing now between Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, other government agencies, is how do we design specific programs to target children?<\/strong>&#8221; he pointed out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Anthony noted that Guyana is also looking to learn from successful youth drug prevention initiatives implemented in other countries and explore best practices through international partners such as PAHO. He also announced plans to strengthen addiction treatment services through training for healthcare professionals, facilitated by the Mount Sinai partnership. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>-MOH tackling issue from multiple fronts -by Celestine Chacon Alarming levels of substance use among schoolchildren in Guyana have been uncovered through recent health screenings. For instance, almost half of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[472,350],"tags":[488,370,456,412,405,1110],"class_list":["post-30632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare","category-news","tag-488","tag-guyana","tag-ministry-of-health","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news","tag-substance-abuse"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30634,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30632\/revisions\/30634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}