In search of the 'anti-drug'

When George Bush delivered his State of the Union address last January, he was quick to proclaim his administration's faith in drug education. "We are fighting illegal drugs," the president told a roomful of applauding legislators, "by cutting off supplies and reducing demand through antidrug education programs."

In fact, the number of experts who still embrace the "cutting off supplies" approach to the war on drugs is an ever-increasing minority. But at the same time interest in drug education as a means of battling illegal drug use remains strong. For the past decade, experts and politicians across the political spectrum have been stepping up the argument that education, rather than tough drug laws and border control, will be the most effective means of turning teen drug use in America on its head.

A whole lot, then, is riding on the success of existing drug education programs, and the Bush administration knows it. Among the provisions of this year's National Drug Control Strategy: $170 million earmarked for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and $694 million for the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program.

And yet, during a summer rife with the results of studies on drugs, anti-drug campaigns, and drug prevention, it became increasingly clear that no one seems to know just what to teach, or how, or when. A few scenarios show that some of the methods adults use to push kids away from drugs may actually be drawing them nearer.

• In June, drug czar John Walters proposed drug testing in schools across the country just weeks after a multiyear study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that students in schools that have drug testing are likelier to use drugs than those in schools that don't.

• In late July, on the same day that Cheech & Chong - long associated with marijuana use - announced work on their first film in 20 years ("They have a whole new generation of fans out there," New Line Cinema's Kent Alterman beamed), the Harvard School of Public Health released its College Alcohol Study. Education programs aimed at reducing drinking at college may encourage it, the study found.

• In August, shortly after participating in an antidrug film, a 15-year-old boy in England was found in his grandfather's garden after overdosing on a fistful of Ecstasy pills. The tablets had been stamped with kangaroos, and three 16- and 17-year-old boys were arrested on suspicion of supplying them. How could a student so involved in drug prevention, the world asked, so completely escape its message?

Experts continue to wonder why it remains so hard to identify the elements of a truly effective drug program. Considerable time, money, and effort have been thrown at the question, and yet the hearts and minds of many young people seem to remain largely resistant to the cautionary messages of adults. Drug education programs may have statistics, case studies, and "just say no" techniques on their side, but drugs have supposed glamour, adventure, and the promise of peer acceptance on theirs. Messages coming from teachers and adult seem only rarely able to compete.

The history of drug education is short and poorly documented. Many drug experts are as uncomfortable discussing it as they are talking about illegal drug use, in part because it is riddled with failed programs, and in part because of the implicit admission that it is still too early to declare any of the latest ones effective.

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6