INTEGRATE DRUG EDUCATION MODELS

What happens if kids say maybe to experimenting, wonders Cam McAlpine.

It's nice to see that quaint old anti-drug message, "Just Say No," making
room for the more pragmatic "Just Say Know."

Personally, I don't want to see my kids grow up using drugs. Who does?

But the reality is that the odds are greater that they will, at the very
least, experiment with tobacco, alcohol and/or other drugs.

A friend whom I admire very much had the success and good fortune to raise
her son into adulthood free of any drugs whatsoever, including caffeine.
What's more admirable about her accomplishment is that she did so after
becoming a single mom as a teenager and successfully battling her own demons.

I hazard to guess, however, that this anecdote is more the exception than
the norm.

Another friend, who just three years ago was singing the praises of the
Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (DARE) is now dealing with his
13-year-old daughter's early involvement with the drug culture.

Don't get me wrong. This isn't about criticizing DARE. It's fine, as far as
it goes. It at least attempts to give adolescents the tools with which to
deal with the inevitable pressure they will face upon reaching junior high
or high school. And as much as it's funded through non-government sources,
I say keep up the good work.

But the abstinence strategy is only part of the larger picture. It lays the
groundwork, so to speak.

However, it is only a workable strategy before kids have reached puberty
and still count their parents and teachers as having a bigger influence on
their lives than their peers.

Anti-drug campaigners will tell you that when they go into an elementary
school and ask, "How many of you plan to become drug users?" nobody raises
their hand.

When they ask, "How many of you plan to fight drug use and learn to say
no?" everyone raises their hands. No kidding. I did too when I was 11.

But when kids hit that critical stage when the hormones are hopping and
parental influence is on the wane, they enter a whole different world from
the cloistered one in which they have existed up until then. They can't
imagine what the next 10 years will be like. It's like a black hole in our
lives and only teenagers know what it's like at any given moment.

So, has a black and white image of the world, in which they are taught that
if they don't say no, they will inevitably say yes to a life of dissolution
and vagrancy, really prepared them for the increasingly grey world they
must inhabit? I would argue no.

We may hope our children can say no all of the time rather than yes. But it
is more likely they will say "maybe" some of the time.

Do we prepare them to cope with that on their own when the time comes, or
do we demand of them an even greater level of perfection than we demand of
ourselves?

Since recreational drug use entered the mainstream three or four decades
ago, we have moved from a speak-no-evil, see-no-evil reaction to a more
open dialogue about drug use. Statistics suggest that the latter approach
has had a more positive impact on our younger generations.

In 1996, more teenagers report having tried marijuana at least once than
did in 1979 (32 per cent and 27 per cent respectively). However, the number
of kids who become regular users has dropped radically during that same
period (13 per cent reported smoking dope on a regular basis in 1979 versus
4.7 per cent in 1996).

So, while we should not disregard the abstinence model - and in fact should
promote it - we should combine that message with a more appropriate message
of just say know.

As in, if we equip them with complete and balanced information about drugs
- - knowledge -combined with other empathetic and respectful child-rearing
strategies, hopefully kids will be able to make their own sensible decisions.

We should, in other words, begin integrating the two models into a single
drug education program that encourages kids to just say no, but which
offers them a backup plan in the event that they decide to say yes.