Pubdate: Mon, 31 Dec 2007
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Stanton Peele
Note: Mr. Peele is a psychologist and addiction expert, and the 
author of "Addiction-Proof Your Child" (Three Rivers Press, 2007).

DRUG USE AND THE CANDIDATES

In his 1996 autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," presidential 
candidate Barack Obama admitted using alcohol and drugs in high school.

He was unusually frank compared to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush -- 
to name just two politicians reputed to have used drugs.

Mr. Obama raised the issue again in November in Manchester, N.H. In 
response to a request by Central High School's principal that he 
reveal his "human side," he discussed his high school years in 
Hawaii: "I was kind of a goof-off. . . . There were times when I got 
into drinking and experimented with drugs." He added that he had 
righted himself to become a "grind" by the end of college.

Then an influential New Hampshire Democrat and Hillary Clinton 
supporter, Bill Shaheen, said Mr. Obama's drug use made him 
vulnerable to attacks from Republicans. Mr. Shaheen quickly retracted 
his remarks, but voter attention was directed to the candidate's teen 
behavior just weeks before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and Jan. 8 New 
Hampshire primary.

Are there many other prominent people who used illicit substances 
when young? Messrs. Bush and Clinton are likely only the tip of the 
iceberg. According to the University of Michigan's Monitoring the 
Future Survey, in 2007 about half of high school seniors had used an 
illegal drug. More than seven of 10 seniors had consumed alcohol, and 
55% had been drunk.

In fact, 44% drank alcohol in the past month.

These figures rise and fall over the years: In 1980, the spring of 
Mr. Obama's 18th year, two-thirds of seniors had used an illicit drug 
and more than 70% had consumed alcohol in the past month. There has 
been massive drug and underage alcohol use by Americans over the 
years -- more than 110 million Americans, according to the National 
Survey on Drug Use and Health, have used illicit drugs.

Yet the overwhelming majority of them -- like Messrs. Bush, Clinton 
and Obama -- have grown up to be productive citizens.

Some believe there's no need to know about their youthful misconduct.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney takes this one step 
further. "It's just not a good idea," he said, "for people running 
for president of the United States, who potentially could be the role 
model for a lot of people, to talk about their personal failings 
while they were kids, because it opens the doorway to other kids 
thinking, 'Well I can do that too.'" Well, this is not the whole story.

Neural research indicates that adolescent brains program kids to try 
risky behaviors.

It is unlikely we will soon prevent large numbers of teens from 
drinking and using drugs.

Yet, subtracting the approximately 20 million current drug users from 
the 110 million plus people who once used, almost 100 million 
Americans have left drugs behind.

Perhaps it can be good for young people to learn that as they mature 
they can, and will, straighten out and fly right? This is the 
opposite of the approach of nearly all school drug education 
programs. Here the logic is to troop in people who have ruined their 
lives by their drug use and drinking, as object lessons in the evils 
of sin. But there are reasons to believe that kids reject negative 
messages from figures like these, and that purely scare tactics don't 
work. Research on effective drug resistance programs finds that the 
best ways to prevent substance abuse are for kids to develop skills, 
feel good about themselves, have positive peers, and look forward to 
their futures.

 From this perspective, Mr. Obama's message that he briefly stumbled 
but then righted himself to achieve success may be just what the 
doctor ordered. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake