AUTHOR SAYS TEENS QUESTION 'JUST SAY NO' DRUG MESSAGE

Speaker Urges Alternatives in Education

American teen-agers are increasingly skeptical of drug education programs
that focus solely on abstinence and fail to distinguish between marijuana
and harder drugs, a drug policy reform advocate said Tuesday. Marsha
Rosenbaum, a sociologist and author who heads the San Francisco office of
the Drug Policy Alliance, spoke on the eve of a major drug policy
conference starting today at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute
for Public Policy.

Rosenbaum, who will lead a session at the conference, said drug education
efforts should continue to encourage abstinence while offering alternatives
to prevent young people who try drugs from sliding into abuse or addiction.

The prevailing "abstinence only" mentality inhibits discussion of other
measures young people can take to lessen the risk of harm if they choose to
experiment with drugs, Rosenbaum said. The current approach, she said, is
unrealistic and dangerous.

"The prevention of drug experimentation in America today among teen-agers
might be impossible," said Rosenbaum, noting that young people are prone to
risky behavior and live in a culture in which they are bombarded daily with
drug-related images and messages.

While schoolchildren in the 1990s received the most intense drug education
in history, Rosenbaum said, surveys show that more than half experimented
with drugs before they finished high school and 80 percent tried alcohol.

Rosenbaum said her suspicions about the value of the "Just Say No" approach
to drug education began when she was interviewing addicts for her doctoral
dissertation in the late 1970s.

A woman imprisoned for heroin use said she had been told in grade school
that marijuana was a dangerous gateway to harder drugs. When she later met
people who smoked marijuana without destroying their lives, she told
Rosenbaum, she concluded the anti-drug message must have been inaccurate.

"So when heroin came along, I thought, 'Why not?' " the woman said,
according to Rosenbaum.

The anti-drug message is further eroded, Rosenbaum said, by the
distinctions between legal and illegal drugs.

Teen-agers "don't understand why a substance like marijuana is prohibited,
while other, more poisonous substances like alcohol and tobacco are legal
and advertised," she said.

Rosenbaum suggested that schools incorporate scientifically accurate
information about the physical effects of drugs into appropriate classes.

She spoke at a luncheon organized by the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, a
local nonprofit that advocates reform of drug education and enforcement
policies.

The group's president, Jerry Epstein, said the Baker Institute conference
will provide a valuable forum to "suggest more effective ways to limit the
damage done by drug use and abuse."

Asa Hutchison, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
is scheduled to speak today, providing an overview of current federal drug
policy. Epstein said Hutchison "deserves credit for being the first major
public official to be willing to defend current policy in such a venue."

Other experts will discuss legal, public health and educational aspects of
the drug issue. Thursday's focus will be on approaches to drug education
and enforcement in other countries.

Houston Mayor Lee Brown, who served as director of the U.S. Office of Drug
Control Policy in the Clinton administration, also will speak Thursday.

While the conference is not generally open to the public, organizers said
some seating may be available. Those interested should call 713-348-4683 to
make arrangements.