Today, Iceland tops the European table for the cleanest-living teens. The percentage of 15- and 16-year-olds who had been drunk in the previous month plummeted from 42 per cent in 1998 to 5 per cent in 2016. The percentage who have ever used cannabis is down from 17 per cent to 7 per cent. Those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23 per cent to just 3 per cent.
I can't see all of the Icelandic measures being implemented everywhere, but I'd hope at least some of the techniques could be widely adopted. The nice thing is that it fits into a lot of pre-existing narratives about how to deal with youth problems; the only "radical" thing here is the finding that warnings about drug addiction are not enough. But really by now that should be self-evident.
https://mosaicscience.com/story/iceland-prevent-teen-substance-abuse
Minor point of pedantry regarding "after dark" curfews - 10pm in winter is about seven hours after dark in Reykjavik. Or not remotely dark in summer.
ReplyDeleteBut, as usual, Nordic sensibleness wins again. I really wish I was in a position to be able to move to Iceland, I'd do it in a second if I could.
Corrected.
ReplyDelete_ £250 per year to spend on recreational activities _
ReplyDeleteIn terms of return on the dollar, easily a top-notch investment for governments.
As someone who has worked with teenagers almost his entire adult life, I'll file this under "well, d'uh". It's sad that this is so hard to push anywhere else.