ANTI-DRUG USE EFFORTS MUST BE REALITY-BASED

Your June 26 editorial offered excellent advice on preventing
adolescent drug use. The importance of parental involvement in
reducing drug use cannot be overstated.

School-based extracurricular activities also have been shown to
reduce use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're most likely
to get into trouble.

In order for drug prevention efforts to effectively reduce harm, they
must be reality-based. The most popular drug and the one most closely
associated with violent behavior is often overlooked by parents. That
drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives each year than all
illegal drugs combined.

Alcohol may be legal, but it's still the No. 1 drug problem.

For decades, school-based drug prevention efforts have been dominated
by sensationalist programs like Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
Independent evaluations of DARE have found the program to be either
ineffective or counterproductive. The scare tactics do more harm than good.

Students who realize they've been lied to about marijuana often make
the mistake of assuming that harder drugs like methamphetamine are
relatively harmless as well. This is a recipe for disaster.

Drug education programs must be reality-based, or they may backfire
when kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among their peers.

A U.S. Government Accounting Office report confirms my claims
regarding DARE. To read it, go to www.gao.gov/new.items/d03172r.pdf

Robert Sharpe

policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.