EFFECTIVE ANTI-DRUG PROGRAMS MUST BE REALITY-BASED

Your July 20 editorial contained 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 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 might be legal for adults, but it's still the No. 1 drug problem.

For decades, school-based drug prevention efforts have been dominated by
sensationalist programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Good
intentions are no substitute for effective drug education. Independent
evaluations of D.A.R.E. have found the program to be either ineffective or
counterproductive.

The scare tactics used 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 prevention programs must be reality-based, or
they might backfire when kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among
their peers.

Robert Sharpe

Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.