DRUG USE AND THE CANDIDATES

In his 1996 autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," presidential
candidate Barack Obama admitted using alcohol and drugs in high school.

He was unusually frank compared to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush --
to name just two politicians reputed to have used drugs.

Mr. Obama raised the issue again in November in Manchester, N.H. In
response to a request by Central High School's principal that he
reveal his "human side," he discussed his high school years in
Hawaii: "I was kind of a goof-off. . . . There were times when I got
into drinking and experimented with drugs." He added that he had
righted himself to become a "grind" by the end of college.

Then an influential New Hampshire Democrat and Hillary Clinton
supporter, Bill Shaheen, said Mr. Obama's drug use made him
vulnerable to attacks from Republicans. Mr. Shaheen quickly retracted
his remarks, but voter attention was directed to the candidate's teen
behavior just weeks before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and Jan. 8 New
Hampshire primary.

Are there many other prominent people who used illicit substances
when young? Messrs. Bush and Clinton are likely only the tip of the
iceberg. According to the University of Michigan's Monitoring the
Future Survey, in 2007 about half of high school seniors had used an
illegal drug. More than seven of 10 seniors had consumed alcohol, and
55% had been drunk.

In fact, 44% drank alcohol in the past month.

These figures rise and fall over the years: In 1980, the spring of
Mr. Obama's 18th year, two-thirds of seniors had used an illicit drug
and more than 70% had consumed alcohol in the past month. There has
been massive drug and underage alcohol use by Americans over the
years -- more than 110 million Americans, according to the National
Survey on Drug Use and Health, have used illicit drugs.

Yet the overwhelming majority of them -- like Messrs. Bush, Clinton
and Obama -- have grown up to be productive citizens.

Some believe there's no need to know about their youthful misconduct.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney takes this one step
further. "It's just not a good idea," he said, "for people running
for president of the United States, who potentially could be the role
model for a lot of people, to talk about their personal failings
while they were kids, because it opens the doorway to other kids
thinking, 'Well I can do that too.'" Well, this is not the whole story.

Neural research indicates that adolescent brains program kids to try
risky behaviors.

It is unlikely we will soon prevent large numbers of teens from
drinking and using drugs.

Yet, subtracting the approximately 20 million current drug users from
the 110 million plus people who once used, almost 100 million
Americans have left drugs behind.

Perhaps it can be good for young people to learn that as they mature
they can, and will, straighten out and fly right? This is the
opposite of the approach of nearly all school drug education
programs. Here the logic is to troop in people who have ruined their
lives by their drug use and drinking, as object lessons in the evils
of sin. But there are reasons to believe that kids reject negative
messages from figures like these, and that purely scare tactics don't
work. Research on effective drug resistance programs finds that the
best ways to prevent substance abuse are for kids to develop skills,
feel good about themselves, have positive peers, and look forward to
their futures.

From this perspective, Mr. Obama's message that he briefly stumbled
but then righted himself to achieve success may be just what the
doctor ordered.