Drug abuse is a major social problem in Turkey and in the world. The most common and the most commonly produced illicit drug among all drugs is cannabis. In general, cannabis is not considered as much as other narcotics and is even regarded as harmless due to its vegetative nature. However, contrary to the general belief, cannabis use can lead to tolerance development and dependence after a certain period of time. Also, some research (Timberlake, 2009; NIDA, 2017) emphasizes that cannabis is a gateway to other drug substances in transit. Therefore, cannabis has an important relationship with other narcotic substances. In literature, many types of research show that many social, economic and political precautions need to be taken to solve the problem of using cannabis, which is seen as a transition to other drugs. The vast majority of users have started using cannabis in adolescence. Therefore, from adolescence, there should be studies informing about cannabis and especially the negative effects of it in schools and various institutions. This project aims to raise awareness of young people and reduce drug use for prevention of drug abuse. The focus of this project is young people between the ages of 15-18. The project has two stages: Firstly, it is planning to save addict teenagers and secondly protect non-addict teenagers from the drug market. For this reasons, there will workshops, online training module and cirriculum for educators and parents. Also there will be online training website so young people can take online open access courses for drug prevention and creating awareness on addiction. As Harran University is the coordinator of the project we have partners of Opole University from Poland, Oslo University from Norway, Istanbul University (Yeşilay Bağımlılık Merkezi) and Kastamonu University from Turkey as research/ scientific knowledge, Kaledar tech. companyas a social enterprise with its technological expertise for online software and movie and policy application institutes and ADJ from Portugal as an NGO. For this purpose, we will have meetings with our partners to build a module and organize several activities. As a resource, we will use the tools produced by SALTO-Net and we will then build our own tools. Also, another outcome of the project will be a short movie which will attract the attention of young people. There will also be intellectual outputs of the Project such as some academic articles, workshop, and online training course for young people, educators and parents and also a toolkit for the teachers in the high schools. At the end of this project, we are planning to make awareness and the impact of using cannabis on young people. At the same time, we will help to reduce drug abuse in Turkey in particular and in the world in general. If we are successful to make a module, we would like to share with the other countries to fight drug abuse. These sustainable results of the project will help NGOs, municipalities, and other institution to cope with this problem.
This project aims to raise awareness of individuals, especially young people, and reduce drug use (especially cannabis use). Our target audience is youth who are between the age of 15-18. The project has two stages: Firstly, it is planning to save teenagers under risk of addiction and secondly protect non-addict teenagers from the drug market. For this purpose we will have meetings with our partners to build a module and organize several activities with young people. Also another outcome of the Project will be some short films which will attract the attention of the young people. There will also be intellectual outputs of the Project such as some academic articles and also toolkits for the teachers in the high schools.
Drug abuse is a serious social problem in Turkey and in the world. Drug use adversely affects individuals’ social, economic, physical life and mental development. In all drug substances, cannabis is the most common and the most used drug substance. Cannabis is among the most widely used of all psychoactive drugs. Despite the fact that its possession and use is illegal in most countries, cannabis is used regularly by as many as 20 million people in the United States and Europe, and by millions more in other parts of the world (Iversen, 2000: 2). It is the most commonly seized drug, accounting for about eight out of ten seizures in Europe, and reflecting its relatively high prevalence of use.However, contrary to the general belief, cannabis use can lead to tolerance development and dependence after a certain period of time. Wagner and Anthony (2002) claim that long-term use of cannabis may lead to tolerance to the effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as well as addiction. The active ingredient in cannabis, THC, is only found in small portions of the cannabis plant, in the flowering tops and in some of the leaves. There is a need for prevention for drug abuse among young people not only in Turkey but also in the whole world.