DRUG-PREVENTION PROGRAMS: WORTH IT?

Although the best school-based drug-prevention programs are worth the
cost, they produce only modest results and are hardly a "silver
bullet" in the government's war on drugs, a new Rand Corp. study concludes.

The study, which focused on cocaine use, estimates that the best of
the anti-drug prevention efforts will curtail a student's use of the
substance by an average of 8 percent over a lifetime - a result that,
dollar for dollar, compares favorably with government efforts to
shrink demand by destroying coca leaves overseas or by patrolling the
border.

But the report released yesterday by the Santa Monica, Calif.-based
think tank cautions against expecting too much from prevention
programs, the full effects of which, it says, can take up to 40 years
to kick in.

"It is not likely that with current technology, prevention can play a
decisive role in eradicating our current drug problem," it says.

The report comes as government officials at all levels increasingly
emphasize school-based prevention programs as part of the $40 billion
war on drugs.

It's been an uphill battle. Drug use among students is rising, federal
figures show. The number of 12th-graders using cocaine nearly doubled,
from 1.3 percent in 1992 to 2.4 percent in 1998.

The federal government has funded a plethora of anti-drug education
programs in schools, but recent research shows that many aren't
effective, the Rand study says.

However, it focuses on two programs roundly considered to work -
Project ALERT and Life Skills - both of which teach seventh-through
ninth-graders the social skills to resist peer pressure.

The Rand study, which involved 7,600 students in 86 schools, was based
on evaluations in 1993 and 1995.

The programs have reduced the use of marijuana, says the Rand study,
which inferred an impact as well on cocaine consumption. Cocaine use
typically starts after high school and leads to relatively more
deaths, arrests and lost worker time than other drugs.