A new study shows the top three programs used to educate and prevent school-age children from using drugs - Drug Abuse Resistance Education; Here’s Looking at You, 2000; and McGruff’s Drug Prevention and Child Protection - are either ineffective or haven’t been sufficiently tested.
Those results are hardly surprising. Despite these programs’ years of operation, the Health Education Research study concludes they simply aren’t producing the results they were originally intended to.
This study is yet another criticism of the United States’ floundering war on drugs, which has relied too long on heavy-handed punishments and empty education and rehabilitation efforts.
It’s time these school-age education efforts are retooled and given the appropriate government aid to do the job they’re supposed to do. School districts only get about $5 per child annually to support such programs - which isn’t enough to hire a program coordinator, according to the study’s author.
And most importantly, parents need to realize drug education starts at home. Parental influence is a strong factor weighing into children’s decisions. If parents simply open dialogue about their own experiences, the differences between right and wrong and other issues can give children the ammunition they need to think for themselves and appropriately deal with the temptation of drugs.
A July survey showed that adults’ warnings of drug-use dangers and encouragement for students to get involved in other activities helped decrease drug, alcohol and cigarette use among sixth- to 12th-graders to its lowest levels since 1994.
School programs need to be there to supplement parental guidance for the young students, and when parents fail, the school has to fill the void. Education and preventive programs within the school system are necessary, and also can help further reduce the number of young people who use drugs.
But the revelation that the current style of programs hasn’t been effective is hardly a surprise. The war on drugs has seemed to be a losing battle since the beginning.
Intense shifts in policy and method are necessary across the board if any real progress is to be made in preventing the use of illicit narcotics.
The mystique of drugs will always present itself to young people - some will try it, some may become hooked and others still may choose to avoid them altogether.
No one knows how to make sure all young people fit into the last category, but the methods used so far have been far from effective.
An incredible amount of time and money is being spent on programs that no longer do the job.
Any progress in drug education will be slow.
But to be effective, these efforts must be willing to change with the times. Our best chance to reduce drug use relies on a broad-based approach, including the positive influences of well-developed educational programs for young people.
