EFFORTS SHOULD IMPROVE DRUG EDUCATION

Providing more education to young people in our schools always ranks high
when people list possible solutions for addressing Daviess County's growing
drug problem.

But what some fail to realize is that it's not a matter of simply exposing
kids to the dangers of drugs and alcohol. That's already happening, with
varying degrees of success. The feel-good nature of some programs has
helped to hide the fact that they aren't having much impact on students' lives.

What this community has lacked until recently is data on student behavior
- -- information about what substances kids are using and at what age usage
begins to spike. And that's made it difficult to tailor education programs
to meet specific needs.

That's why the Kentucky Incentive Project -- a survey that city, county and
Catholic schools took in 2002 -- was so important. Among its many findings,
it helped to show that the chances of a student using drugs or alcohol
increased greatly between the eighth and 10th grades.

The true benefits of this study, however, will be realized if Owensboro and
Daviess County public schools follow through on a plan to coordinate their
drug awareness and prevention curricula. If everything goes as planned, the
districts will begin offering LifeSkills Training in the fall. And
Owensboro Catholic Schools is using a different, but equally effective,
program called Smart Moves.

The curriculum is supported by many in the local prevention community
because it's science based, meaning its effectiveness is measured by both
research and accountability measures. Its target audience locally will be
seventh, eighth and ninth graders.

Ideally, science-based curriculum will eventually be incorporated into
earlier grades as well, but for now, LifeSkills will target the middle and
early high school years, because that's where the KIP study has shown usage
begins to increase.

Consider that 3 percent of eighth-graders report drinking alcohol 40 or
more times, compared with 14 percent of 10th-graders. For marijuana usage
40 or more times, the number is 2 percent for eighth-graders and 11 percent
for 10th-graders. And 4 percent of eighth-graders smoke compared with 16
percent of 10th-graders. That number is important, because cigarettes are
considered a potential gateway to alcohol and drugs.

To be certain, education and prevention are just a small part of the effort
needed to address this community's drug problems. Equal attention must be
given to enforcement, treatment and recovery.

But it's encouraging to see the local school systems not only coordinating
their efforts, but also investing the limited resources available in
programs that prevention specialists believe will really have an impact in
steering kids away from drugs and alcohol.