SEND ONE STRONG MESSAGE, AND SHARE THE RESPONSIBILITY

Choice 2: Change attitudes about illegal drugs: Since government cannot
significantly reduce the supply of illegal drugs, we must reduce the demand
for them -- by changing tolerant attitudes. Parents, schools and the
entertainment media must say, with one voice, that illegal drugs are
dangerous and socially unacceptable.

The link of substance abuse with negative consequences, such as the loss of
employee productivity, poor school performance, increasing health-care
costs, increasing acts of violence and death, has been the focus of media
attention throughout the past decade.

Prevention messages and programs such as "Just Say No" and others have
become prolific throughout the United States, and yet we see little change
in the cost to society caused by the abuse of alcohol, the use of tobacco
and the prevalence of illegal drugs.

To address this crisis, a shift is under way in the way we think about
alcohol and other drug-abuse prevention. No longer is prevention the job of
just the local health education teacher or prevention specialist hired by a
school district, county or college. The community as a whole is seen as a
catalyst for the prevention of alcohol and other drug problems. Prevention,
therefore, is a multidisciplined approach of multiple strategies that
affect the entire community and that strive for environmental change.

Dr. Richard Keeling, director of University Health Services at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, has noted the prevention messages we have
used for decades -- such as "Know when to say when," "Drink responsibly"
and "Know your limits" -- place all the responsibility on the individual,
and none on the community. This isolation of individual responsibility
supports the broader misperception that bad things happen to bad people;
that the individual didn't know enough or was irresponsible. And the
community's role in this is merely to mourn the individual's misfortune or
loss, and move on. There is rarely a community response that involves
identifying cultural norms, practices, principles, values, institutions and
beliefs that support continued consequences of use, misuse or abuse.

Current thinking in prevention asserts that alcohol and other drug abuse is
not the problem of a troubled few, but is a reflection of the nature of the
communities we create. We must identify where and how our communities
directly and indirectly support misuse and abuse, where behaviors and
messages are inconsistent with our desires for a safe, caring community.

This needed approach to prevention is no longer one of mere
information-sharing; it is a community public health approach. It will not
occur in a classroom or lecture, but rather in daily living. There will be
a shift in strategies from those which focus only on the individual to
those that address the environment. No longer will use be OK, laughed at,
glorified by the media or approved of within our stories. Mixed messages
and behaviors inconsistent with the values of the community will be
challenged. It is a process of changing the context in which we all make
our decisions for use.

Prevention does not compete with but relies upon and supports the continued
rigorous enforcement of current policies and laws. It supports ongoing
treatment for those who suffer from the effects of the disease of addiction
and builds upon intervention programs to identify those at risk for
dependency.

The National Issues Forum, which will provide an opportunity for public
talk on public politics, is an example of prevention in action and
practice. Through this forum individuals will be able to come together as a
community to engage in conversation and debate this critical issue.

This is a long-term, communitywide process of change requiring us to engage
in difficult conversations and to take action. It is time for us to change
our beliefs about prevention from "know your limits" to embracing our
collective responsibility, as Keeling says, to notice, care and act.

© 1998 Centre Daily Times