Saving drug talks for teens may be too late

By  Simon Mwangi

Deputy Director, Corporate Communications

Nacada

What you need to know:

• A national survey by Nacada recorded children trying tobacco as young as six, alcohol at seven and cannabis at eight.
• Children start forming beliefs about alcohol, cigarettes and pills long before they can spell the words.

I often meet parents who tell me they are “saving” the drug conversation for when their child turns fifteen. Their children are usually eight or nine. I rarely have the heart to tell them that, based on our data, they may already be too late.

Many Kenyan parents picture substance use as a problem that arrives with teenage. So, we wait. We tell ourselves the child is too young and too innocent, and that raising the subject will only plant ideas. The world, meanwhile, is not waiting at all.

Look at the numbers. Nacada’s national survey on the status of drugs and substance use found that about one in six Kenyans aged 15 to 65, roughly 4.7 million people, uses at least one drug or substance. A problem that size doesn’t appear out of nowhere at age fifteen.

The same survey recorded children trying tobacco as young as six, alcohol at seven and cannabis at eight. Our study of more than 3,300 primary school pupils in 177 schools found that the median age of first use was eleven. The youngest child who reported trying a substance was four years old. 

Stories about addiction

Four. That’s a child who is still learning to tie their shoelaces.

So, when exactly are we planning to talk? Children start forming beliefs about alcohol, cigarettes and pills long before they can spell the words. They watch an uncle reach for a drink “to relax” after work. They see a neighbour’s son stagger home from the local den. They scroll past music videos that make vaping look like a fashion accessory, and past flavoured nicotine products packaged to look like sweets.

By the time they reach Form One, many have quietly decided that this is simply what grown-ups do, and that it’s normal.

Starting early doesn’t mean frightening a seven-year-old with stories about addiction. It means building a foundation one age and one conversation at a time. With a young child it can be as simple as explaining that we only take medicine when a doctor or a parent gives it to us.

At ten, it can be a chat about peer pressure and what to say when a friend offers something “just to try.” By the teenage years the conversation is no longer awkward, because it has been going on all along and the door is already open.

Share the responsibility

That openness matters more than any lecture. Children who know they can talk to their parents without being shouted down are far more likely to open up. Silence pushes children to look for answers from dubious sources.

Parents can’t shoulder this alone. Teachers, religious leaders, community elders and all of us at Nacada share the responsibility, which is why we keep working with schools on life skills and prevention programmes. Still, no curriculum can replace a parent who notices, listens and speaks first.

So, to every parent reading this: don’t wait for the teenage years. Start tonight, over supper, in the matatu or on the walk to school. Keep it short and honest, and keep it going.

If we don’t tell our children the truth about drugs early, someone else will tell them a lie.

The writer is the Deputy Director, Corporate Communications at Nacada. www.nacada.go.ke