Description
This 3-hour course will help develop the student’s understanding of the national and international strategic drug control policies. The student will also gain insight into the complex issues of drug marketing, trafficking, and the various control methods. Knowledge in these areas will give the counselor the confidence to converse with clients who may need to better understand the various drug policies.
Goals/Objectives
The objectives of this internet based course are for the learner to:
- Understand the need for counselors to be concerned about international drug policies
- Understand the economic foundation of international drug markets
- Understand the strategic targets of drug control policy
- Know the street terms of the international drug trade
- Understand the control strategy of demand reduction
- Understand the drug control strategy of harm reduction
- Understand the drug control strategy of trafficking reduction
- Understand the drug control strategy of legislation
- Understand the drug control strategy of decriminalization
- Understand the drug control strategy of control focus
- Know how to measure endorsement of international drug policy strategies
Your Course Instructor:
Robert Shearer, PhD
Dr. Robert A. Shearer is a retired professor of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling and Psychology from Texas A & M University, Commerce. Prior to teaching Criminal Justice, he taught Educational Psychology at Mississippi State University on campus and in the extension program across rural Mississippi during the civil rights era.
He has been teaching, training, consulting and conducting research in the fields of Criminal Justice, human behavior, and addictions for over thirty-six years. He is the author of over sixty professional and refereed articles in Criminal Justice and behavior. He is also the author of Interviewing: Theories, techniques, and practices, 5th edition published by Prentice Hall. Dr. Shearer has also created over a dozen measurement, research, and assessment instruments in Criminal Justice and addictions.
He has been a psychotherapist in private practice and served as a consultant to dozens of local, state, and national agencies. His interests continue to be substance abuse program assessment and evaluation. He has taught courses in interviewing, human behavior, substance abuse counseling, drugs-crime-social policy, assessment and treatment planning, and educational psychology. He has also taught several university level psychology courses in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division, led group therapy in prison, trained group therapists, and served as an expert witness in various courts of law.
He has been the president of the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counseling and the editor of the Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling as well as a member of many Criminal Justice, criminology, and counseling professional organizations prior to retirement.