iMinds is a reflection of the idea that a young person’s ability to make healthy choices depends on their health literacy. Literacy itself involves a complex relationship with knowledge. It is much more than memorizing a set of facts. Literacy involves developing cognitive, social and emotional skills to apply relevant evidence gained in one context to new questions in order to create knowledge. The mind, of course, plays a central role in all of these skills.

iMinds is not about imparting some abstract body of knowledge or proposing a pre-determined set of behaviours for students. Instead, iMinds is designed to help young people individually develop competence within their social environment by using and training the mind.

The spin-off from the Apple Inc. product line provides a connection to current youth culture and to how young people construct their identity and their meaning within a context of social connection. Rather than viewing youth culture as a negative (consider the negative connotation often associated with “peer pressure”), iMinds seeks to honour youth culture as important to the meaning-making process.

iMinds responds to the real-world needs of teachers while providing quality, theory-based resources that meet prescribed learning outcomes within the BC curriculum.

• Teachers are NOT required to be “experts” on substance use or mental health. Rather, iMinds puts the teacher in the role of facilitator, allowing them to explore ideas with their students.
• Each module allows students to actively acquire and demonstrate new knowledge through interesting, student-directed activities.
• Facilitating the lessons requires minimal preparation on the part of the teacher.
• Each module addresses a significant number of Prescribed Learning Outcomes from a variety of disciplines (e.g., Health and Career Education, Social Studies, and English Language Arts).

iMinds provides teachers with an opportunity to try out a variety of active-learning techniques without having to rebuild or radically change their existing program.

iMinds is based on a constructivist approach to teaching and learning. This method is built on the belief that learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. Learning occurs when students are actively involved in the process of carving out their own meaning of things.

Rather than passively receiving information, as so often happens in traditional settings, learners in a constructivist classroom are motivated to think critically and become actively involved in the pursuit of knowledge. The teacher provides students with experiences that allow them to hypothesize, predict, manipulate objects, pose questions, research, investigate, imagine and invent. The teacher’s role is to facilitate this process.

The diagram below illustrates the 5-i learning model developed by the Centre for Addictions Research of BC and used in iMinds.

iMinds is currently a pilot project of the Centre of Addictions Research of BC. It is still under development and is being evaluated throughout the process. Currently the materials are being implemented in pilot school districts which are collecting information on the usability of the materials and their effectiveness in engaging students. Impact studies are being designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program at increasing mental health literacy.

A drug is a substance that alters the way the body functions either physically or psychologically. The term “drug” thus applies to a wide range of different substances. Of particular concern are those that act on the central nervous system (CNS) to affect the way a person thinks, feels or behaves. These psychoactive substances include alcohol, tobacco and many other legal and illegal drugs.

Drugs are often grouped as legal versus illegal or soft versus hard. These categories can be confusing and misleading. The legal status of substances changes over time and location, and the concepts of “hard” or “soft” are impossible to define as a drug’s effects differ from person to person.

A more useful classification relates to the impact substances have on the central nervous system (CNS):

• Depressants decrease activity in the CNS (e.g., decrease heart rate and breathing). Alcohol and heroin are examples of depressants
• Stimulants increase activity in the CNS and arouse the body (e.g., increase heart rate and breathing). Caffeine, tobacco, amphetamines and cocaine are stimulants.
• Hallucinogens affect the CNS by causing perceptual distortions. Magic mushrooms and LSD are examples of hallucinogens.

There is no society on Earth that does not in some way celebrate, depend on, profit from, enjoy and also suffer from the use of psychoactive substances. Like most developed countries, Canada has a long tradition with—and of legally sanctioning the use of—older substances such as alcohol and nicotine. Multinational companies manufacture, advertise and sell these products for substantial profit to a large market of eager consumers while their governments and the communities they serve reap a rich harvest from tax revenues. They also reap another kind of harvest in terms of health, legal, economic and social problems which are mostly hidden from view.

The last century saw an upsurge in the cultivation, manufacture and trade of other psychoactive substances, some quite ancient and others new. Some have been developed from pharmaceutical products made initially for treating pain, sleep or mental health problems (e.g., heroin, barbiturates and benzodiazepines). Others have been manufactured for recreational purposes (e.g., ecstasy), while still others, notably cannabis, are made from plants or seeds that have been cultivated and traded to new and much larger markets. As with most countries, Canada has implemented legal sanctions supported by international treaties in its attempts to control the manufacture, trade and consumption of some of these products, though their use continues in varying degrees.

Around each of these substances, with their different effects on human behaviour and emotion, cultures and rituals have grown that shape traditions and patterns of use for particular purposes. For almost every type of human activity, there are substances used to facilitate that activity in some way (e.g., religious ceremonies, sport, battle, eating, sex, study, work, dancing, public performances and socializing).

In the case of adolescents, research suggests reasons for use include: curiosity, fun, self‐discovery, to fit in, coping with stress, pain or boredom, staying awake to study, alleviating depression, out of habit, rebelliousness, weight loss and to aid sleep. These different motives for use powerfully influence the pattern of use and the risk of harmful consequences. If the motive for use is fleeting (e.g., curiosity), then only occasional or experimental use may follow. If the motive is a strong and enduring one (e.g., a chronic sleep or mental health problem), then more long lasting and intense substance use, with many problems, may follow. A shorter term but intense motive (e.g., to fit in, to have fun, to alleviate temporary stress) may also result in risky behaviour and harm such as injury or acute illness.

All psychoactive substances have the potential to cause harm.It is important, however, to acknowledge that the careful use of many psychoactive substances can be harm‐free and even beneficial. Substance use can be regarded as being ranged along a continuum from mainly low‐risk and sometimes beneficial use (e.g., opiate use for addressing acute pain), through potentially hazardous use to clearly harmful use (e.g., opiate injection using a non‐sterile needle leading to infection.

Unfortunately, the wrong substance, or perhaps just the wrong dose of a substance at the wrong time and administered the wrong way, can not only impair performance but also lead to serious harm. The type of substance used (e.g., a stimulant such as caffeine or a depressant such as alcohol), the dose taken, the way in which it is taken (e.g., smoked, injected or drunk) and the setting in which use occurs can all influence whether the effect enhances or impairs performance or results in actual harm. Harmful consequences, for the user and those around them, include social problems as well as injuries, illness and death.

While the use of almost any psychoactive substance by children or adolescents may be a cause for concern, there are a number of factors that determine how probable or serious the resulting harm may be. Repeated use of a substance, especially on a daily basis, may pave the way for a strong habit or dependence, which can be hard to break. Some of the main signs of dependence are:

• increasing tolerance for a substance, meaning higher doses are required to get the same effect
• increasing discomfort (psychological and physiological) when attempting or forced to abstain
• increasing fixation on the substance at the expense of other activities

Such intense patterns of use tend to require significant funds to support the habit and compete with other social demands and expectations from family, school and the wider community. There is also evidence that patterns of intense use temporarily blunt the capability of an individual to experience pleasure in other ways – the reward centres of the brain have become "hijacked" by the need to be repeatedly provided with rewards from the drug of choice, whether it be alcohol, tobacco, cannabis or some other psychoactive substance.

Fortunately, most alcohol or other substance use by young people is experimental or social. However, it cannot be emphasized enough that even occasional use can be hazardous and, at the wrong time and in the wrong dose and wrong place, even fatal. The short‐term effects from occasional heavy use are the most frequent causes of serious harm from substance use among young people. Dependence, though serious, is much less common.

Some signs that substance use has become particularly risky or harmful include some or all of the following: early age of onset (especially before age 13 or 14); use to cope with negative mood states; habitual daily use; use before or during school or work; use while driving or during vigorous physical activities; use of more than one substance at the same time; use becoming a major form of recreation.

Signs that patterns of use are less likely to be harmful include: taking precautions when using; being careful to use only in small or moderate amounts; less frequent use and only in particular contexts; being able to stop using at any time.