Pubdate: Wed, 20 Dec 2006
Source: Express (Nelson, CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Kootenay Express Communication Corp.
Contact: http://www.expressnews.ca/letters.html
Website: http://www.expressnews.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2339
Author: Robert Sharpe

DRUG EDITORIAL BANG ON

Dear Editor,

Your December 13 editorial offered excellent advice on preventing 
adolescent substance abuse.  The importance of parental involvement 
in reducing drug use cannot be overstated.  School-based 
extracurricular activities also have been shown to reduce use.  They 
keep kids busy during the hours they're most likely to get into trouble.

In order for drug prevention efforts to effectively reduce harm, they 
must be reality-based.  The most popular drug and the one most 
closely associated with violent behavior is often over-looked by 
parents. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives each year 
than all illegal drugs combined.  Alcohol may be legal, but it's 
still the number one drug problem.

For decades, school-based drug prevention efforts have been dominated 
by sensationalist programs like Drug Abuse Resistance 
Education.  Good intentions are no substitute for effective drug 
education. Independent evaluations of DARE have found the program to 
be either ineffective or counterproductive.  The scare tactics used 
do more harm than good.

Students who realize they've been lied to about marijuana may make 
the mistake of assuming that harder drugs like methamphetamine are 
relatively harmless as well.  This is a recipe for disaster.  Drug 
education programs must be reality-based or they may backfire when 
kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among their peers.

The following U.S. Government Accounting Office report confirms my 
claims regarding DARE: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03172r.pdf

Robert Sharpe

MPA Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, DC
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MAP posted-by: Elaine