Pubdate: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 Source: High Point Enterprise (NC) Copyright: 2002 High Point (N.C.) Enterprise Contact: http://www.hpe.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/576 Author: Robert Sharpe Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n527/a07.html YOUNG PEOPLE DESERVE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS Patty Jo Sawvel's March 19 column contained some excellent advice on preventing drug use. The importance of parental involvement in reducing adolescent drug use cannot be overstated. School-based extracurricular activities have also been shown to reduce drug use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're most prone to getting into trouble. In order for anti-drug education to be effective, it has to be credible. The most popular recreational drug and the one most often associated with violent behavior is often overlooked in drug education. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives every year than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be legal, but it's still the No. 1 drug problem. For decades, anti-drug education has been dominated by scare tactic-based programs like Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE). Good intentions are no substitute for effective education. Every independent, methodologically sound evaluation of DARE has found the program to be either ineffective or counterproductive. The scare tactics used do more harm than good. Students who realize they are being lied to about marijuana often make the mistake of assuming that harder drugs like heroin are relatively harmless as well. This is a recipe for disaster. Drug education programs need to be reality-based or they may backfire when kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among their peers. ROBERT SHARPE Washington, D.C. The writer is a program officer with the Drug Policy Alliance, which calls itself "the leading organization working to broaden the public debate on drug policy and to promote realistic alternatives to the war on drugs." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth