WHETHER IT'S SEX OR DRUGS, ABSTINENCE SIMPLY DOESN'T WORK

Recently it was revealed that the 17-year-old daughter of the
Republican vice-presidential nominee is pregnant. This announcement
was particularly ironic, as Gov. Sarah Palin is a staunch advocate of
abstinence-only sex education.

This high-profile pregnancy is stirring a larger debate about how sex
education is taught in the United States. What's clear is that
despite strong messages urging young people to abstain, most
teenagers, even those who have been admonished time and time again,
are not listening.

Our national surveys confirm doubts about abstinence-only education.
Last year, a study commissioned by Congress revealed that students
receiving abstinence-only sex education are just as likely to be
sexually active as those who do not. This research is consistent with
the conclusions reached two years ago by a joint Yale-Columbia study
of teenage virginity pledges.

The same is true for the other big concern about teenagers -- drug
use. Look at abstinence-only drug education and you get the same
disappointing results as with sex education.

Over two decades ago, as part of the escalating war on drugs and
Nancy Reagan's "just say no" campaign, Congress implemented the 1986
Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act. Federally-funded drug
prevention education for teens was mandated to adhere to a strict
abstinence-only message.

And so it is today, with information going beyond pure abstention --
such as the need for designated driver programs -- just as verboten
as discussions of condoms in abstinence-only sex education.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration's Center for
Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) continues to restrict its funding
of school-based drug education to abstinence-only programs. And the
drug czar's office is now, in addition to its media campaign,
aggressively pushing across-the-board, suspicion-less drug testing as
the "silver bullet" that will absolutely insure abstinence among
secondary school students.

These strategies have proven just as unsuccessful as abstinence-only
sexuality education. Studies of Drug Abuse Resistance Education
(D.A.R.E.), still the most popular school-based prevention program in
the United States, have consistently shown that there is no
difference in terms of drug use between students who had D.A.R.E. and
those who did not. Even the effectiveness of the newer
"science-based" programs, often delivered inadequately, is questionable.

As for the drug czar's billion-dollar anti-drug media campaign --
several researchers, as well as the Government Accountability Office,
have shown that the ads are ineffective and sometimes actually
counterproductive in convincing teens to abstain.

The newest brainchild of the Bush administration, random student drug
testing, is being foisted upon school districts despite a large
federally funded study, conducted by National Institute on Drug Abuse
scientists, showing no difference in rates of drug use in schools
with and without drug testing. Objections have also been raised by
the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Council on
Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and other national organizations
representing educators, public health and social workers.

Take a look at annual assessments of the prevalence of teen drug use
for even more evidence of the failure of abstinence-only education.

The 2007 federally-funded Monitoring the Future survey of high school
students revealed that 73 percent used alcohol (a drug by any
measure) by the time they graduated, and 46.8 percent admitted to
trying illicit drugs.While alcohol use has declined slightly, the use
of prescription pain killers and other psychoactive medications is on
the rise, with last month's annual back-to-school survey conducted by
the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse showing that 24
percent of the teens surveyed said they know one or more friends or
classmates who abuse prescription drugs or use them without a prescription.

Most Americans know by now that "just say no" and other
abstinence-only mandates as the sole basis of prevention do not work.
While encouraging abstinence, programs should offer prevention
education based on science rather than scare tactics.

The next administration can make a big impact on the demand for drugs
as well as drug education and move prevention strategies in a
positive direction if it has the gumption to look beyond the
decades-old failures of past Congresses. It's time to change the "no"
to "know" in Mrs. Reagan's slogan.