REALITY CHECK IS OVERDUE IN PREVENTING DRUG ABUSE

AL GORE admits and George W. Bush implies youthful drug use. So should
schools adopt a "do as I say, not as I do" drug curriculum, or seek another
approach?

Drugs are dangerous, especially for youths whose families, peers or
neighborhoods do not create pressure for responsible choices. And drugs are
illegal.

But many successful adults used drugs casually. And experimentation by
adolescents, most of whom still turn out O.K., continues. The 1990's saw
teenage drug use grow while crime by youths declined.

Effective drug education is needed, but most programs exaggerate dangers and
condemn use so harshly that youths who fail at total abstinence are not
helped. This approach may not work.

Some efforts to reduce teenage drinking or early sex seem smarter. Underage
drinking is illegal but colleges and a few high schools have "safe ride"
programs with "no questions asked." It is contradictory to offer trips home
from alcoholic parties and tell teenagers not to drink, but the mixed
message can save lives.

Likewise, health teachers urge sexual abstinence, yet some high schools also
distribute condoms. Delay sex, they say, but if you go ahead, be safe. When
AIDS seems to threaten, consistency is a lower priority.

But "just say no" dominates drug education. A common program is DARE (Drug
Abuse Resistance Education), used in two-thirds of all districts at a cost
of nearly $1 billion. DARE is taught by police officers, mostly in the fifth
and sixth grades. The White House drug policy director, Barry R. McCaffrey,
calls it "the premier drug prevention program."

Yet researchers find it does not work. DARE gets children to parrot
responses about how terrible drugs are, but they then apparently use drugs
at the same rate as non- DARE students. Some evidence suggests that
DARE-trained adolescents use drugs even more.

Critics worry that DARE uses such exaggeration that once children realize
they were misled, they may discount even true messages. The DARE workbook
says marijuana users "are slow, are dull, have little ambition." But
10-year-olds know of older siblings, parents, even presidents, who used it
without becoming dull or ambitionless. Children must then choose between
DARE and their own observations. DARE is unlikely to prevail.

Other official warnings are also troubling. Advertising sponsored by Mr.
McCaffrey's office tells children, if you use marijuana "it will kill your
mother." Official "tips" urge parents to say, "If you took drugs it would
break my heart."

Parents should think twice before heeding such advice. Although parents do
not want children to try drugs, half of all teenagers do. Parents should
insist that children have safe places to go with friends and that they know
not to drive when "high." But threats of parental suicide and heartbreak may
lead to secret experimentation in risky settings or with friends that
parents neither know nor approve.

Official policy is puzzling because "just say no" has a long history of
failure. Before Prohibition, schools exaggerated alcohol's dangers. A
textbook said that in adult beer drinkers, "a slight cold brings on a fatal
pneumonia." Children who saw parents drink beer and survive colds then
ignored other temperance messages.

A 1930's Bureau of Narcotics campaign warned that marijuana would cause
teenagers to commit vicious crimes. The bureau promoted a 1936 commercial
film, "Tell Your Children," warning that marijuana caused teenagers to rape,
murder and commit suicide. The film's claims were so excessive that it was
later rereleased as a satire and shown widely on college campuses, now
titled "Reefer Madness."

In 1991, the General Accounting Office found no evidence that "just say no"
teaching was more effective in reducing drug use than programs that
recognized teenage behavior but tried to limit it.

Some curriculums may be more effective than DARE. Teachers can give
realistic information about the harm drugs do, and integrate health with
other lessons. But no programs have yet navigated the problem of how to
counsel against drugs while also supporting youths who ignore the advice.

Mayor Ross Anderson of Salt Lake City recently prohibited his police force
from taking part in DARE work. Schools should not "moralize and exaggerate,
but provide students with the basis for making decisions to avoid drugs," he
said.

Salt Lake City is not the only city to reconsider DARE. But in most places,
this ineffective and costly program still holds sway.