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."
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MAP posted-by: Beth