Pubdate: Wed, 05 Mar 2014
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: John Keilman

JUST SAY NO? IT'S BETTER TO GET REAL ABOUT DRUGS

Expert Says Communication Between Parents, Children Is Best Education 
Against Abuse

I dropped by my son's elementary school the other morning for 
D.A.R.E. graduation, a ceremony that capped weeks of anti-drug 
lessons taught by a local police officer. There were awards, speeches 
and a printed program for which each kid had penned a few sentences 
about why he or she would stay away from drugs.

As part of their Drug Abuse Resistance Education, the kids wrote 
mostly about their visions of adult life, and how drugs would derail 
their dreams of becoming scientists, singers or professional 
athletes. As a dad, I was glad to hear their confidence. But as a 
journalist who has written a lot about substance abuse, I was a little uneasy.

That's because I knew that a lot of these pledges, judging by the 
authoritative Monitoring the Future survey on teen drug and alcohol 
use, will eventually be abandoned. By the end of high school, half of 
all students have gotten drunk. Half have used illegal drugs, and a 
quarter have used something other than marijuana.

Substance abuse education has come a long way since my school days in 
the 1980s, with scientific facts generally replacing the Just Say No 
scare tactics I grew up with. But given the continuing abuse, I have 
to wonder: Can any classroom lesson really make a difference?

Sociologist Marsha Rosenbaum, who has studied drug education, said 
the research into that question is not comforting.

"What happens in reality is that kids go though different phases," 
said Rosenbaum, a consultant with the Drug Policy Alliance, which 
advocates for liberalized drug laws. "Fifth-graders can make a 
declaration (that they'll never use drugs) and really mean it, and 
that's good. But what happens is by the time they get to high school, 
junior high sometimes, the world is much bigger, and they actually 
get confronted with substances. These declarations become, 'Well, 
when you're a kid you say that, and then real life happens.'

"Is anything effective? Early messages are effective for a while. 
What's effective for junior high or high school? I don't think 
anybody really knows."

The scientific papers I looked through told the same story, with most 
finding that school-based prevention programs have either modest or 
nonexistent effects. I guess that should come as no surprise, given 
the strong currents that push young people toward drugs and alcohol.

They range from an entertainment culture that portrays booze and pot 
as tickets to fun times to a medical establishment that furnishes a 
pill for everything to a basic human urge for intoxication. Combine 
those with a still-developing adolescent brain that's not exactly 
optimized for sound decision-making, and some level of substance 
abuse seems inevitable.

Rosenbaum, who raised two children in San Francisco, said it's not 
fair to expect already overburdened teachers to take the lead in 
preventing that problem, and it's not realistic to believe that 
complete temperance can be achieved. Instead, she advocates what she 
calls a "reality-based approach" that focuses on lowering the risks.

"Abstinence would be everybody's choice, but if you can't have 
abstinence, what's your fallback?" she said. "For me, it's always safety."

She has distilled her philosophy into a 28-page pamphlet in which she 
emphasizes communication between parents and children and information 
that is "scientifically grounded and balanced." She writes that kids 
should be taught to not ride with intoxicated drivers and to call 911 
if a friend is having a bad reaction to drugs or alcohol. They should 
also be informed of the possible legal and social consequences of 
their choices.

All of that is good advice, but I'm still hopeful that the right 
educational formula is out there. After all, efforts to keep kids 
from smoking, driving while intoxicated and engaging in risky sexual 
practices have made a huge difference over the past 20 years.

But to Rosenbaum's point, leaving drug and alcohol education up to 
the schools is not sufficient. Parents have to do their part, too, 
relaying information and expectations not just once, but frequently. 
We can't expect D.A.R.E. officers, classroom teachers or anyone else 
to do our work.

"The job of the drug conversation really falls on the parents," 
Rosenbaum said. "The bottom line is parents and kids really 
understanding the effects of any substance that's ingested. It's a 
tough job, but I don't think there's any way of avoiding it."
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