TRUTH IN SCHOOLS

Educators for Sensible Drug Policy

We are an organization made up of teachers openly committed to drug
policy reform. We want to encourage open debate between educators,
parents, law makers, enforcers and students. Our organization provides
an important foundation for reform in drug education.

"Canada has enormous potential to influence drug reform" says Adam
Jones, a 21 year old education major at Montana State University in
Billings and founder of (TAP) Teachers Against Prohibition, now
renamed EFSDP Educators for Sensible Drug Policy. http://EFSDP.org

"When intelligent drug policy is implemented in Canada we cannot
ignore the facts because it is so close to home. My point is that
Canada deserves an enormous amount of attention, here and now." Jones
looked at the education profession and with the help of other
activists in the drug reform movement, brought this struggle, through
Educators for Sensible Drug Policy, into the ranks of our nation's
educators.

Organizationally modeled to a large degree after LEAP (Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition) http://www.leap.cc, both groups have much in
common. EFSDP and LEAP are both trying to appeal to professions whose
members witness the end results of the drug war on a daily basis.

The reality is that some students will take drugs and come to school
high; smoking weed is not a new thing. Marijuana use and its related
studies have been going on for years. It is the most widely used
illicit drug in North America. The National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA) in the US claims that over 38% of the total population between
the ages 12 and 17 have tried marijuana at least once in their
lifetime and approximately 8% are using marijuana on a regular basis.

A Canadian national survey of 1,250 12-19 year olds revealed that
getting high is 'mainstream'. Teen marijuana smokers appear to be
imitating their baby-boom parents says Richard Garlick, a spokesman
for the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse.

"Youth rates are going up and are at levels that we haven't seen
since the late '70's when rates reached their peak". Linda Dabros,
special adviser to Health Canada's Director General of Drug Strategy
comments, "Research we have conducted on 12 to 19 year olds show us
that marijuana has gone mainstream and is well integrated into teen
lifestyle". The last national survey in Canada involving youth and
drugs in 1994 showed that one-third of 15-24 year olds smoke pot.

Drugs are everywhere, though just how pervasive they truly are is
unclear. It seems wherever we turn there is yet another issue that
causes us to fear for our children 's safety, health and well-being.
Parents are worried about their children and they have every right to
be. As a community, we know these issues are not isolated to the
bigger urban centers of Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal. We know small
towns have their fair share of substance abuse problems as well.

"I find a lack of education is one of the main reasons that the drug
epidemic is as bad as it is. In my opinion,"says one 14 year old,
"there should be a class all about drugs. It should start in the
second grade, that way kids start getting educated about the harm of
drugs from a very young age".

Educators for Sensible Drug Policy has several goals:

We seek to educate the public, the media and policymakers about the
failures of current drug policy.

We are working to create a Speakers Bureau of knowledgeable and
articulate educators who can describe the impact of our failed drug
polices on issues like teacher safety, teacher / community relations,
and the financial and human cost.

We want to restore student respect for teachers, respect that has been
diminished by the teacher's role in imposing and implementing drug
prohibition, by participating in programs such as D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education).

Our ultimate goal is to reduce drug war harms by ending drug
prohibition.

The war on drugs is heating up. D.A.R.E.'s spread across Canada needs
to be stopped and most importantly, an alternative program must be
offered. Young people need to be educated about drugs, and we are
aware from feedback and numerous studies that D.A.R.E. and other
abstinence-focused programs do not work.

Dr. Marsha Rosenbaum directs the Safety First project of the Drug
Policy Alliance in San Francisco. A medical sociologist, she has
written books and scholarly articles on drug use, addiction, drug
treatment, and drug-using women. Dr.Rosenbaum's Safety First is a
program that gives parents information on how to honestly and
effectively talk to their children about drugs.

"School officials should develop honest, science-based drug education
programs that put the safety of students first. This kind of approach
recognizes that teenagers experiment with drugs, and that it is
important to provide them with credible information about drug use. It
also recognizes that abstinence-only curricula, such as D.A.R.E., have
shown not to work".

In reality, the D.A.R.E. program has been shown to be a colossal
failure and has been written about in more than 16 highly-respected,
independent studies. Included in these studies is a 1999 West
Vancouver Police report which concluded that "In the majority of
studies where drug use was examined, researchers concluded that the
D.A.R.E. program either had little or no effect on drug use." Some
studies even found an increase in drug use among those students taking
the program. http://www.safety1st.org/

The BC Provincial Government currently spends millions on this
ineffective American-based program that essentially encourages
children to do drugs while misinforming them about the dangers.
D.A.R.E. founder, California Police Chief Daryl Gates, saw no
difference between marijuana and crack cocaine and believed that all
drug users should be 'rounded up and shot '. These harsh words
obviously aren't coming from a place of prevention and harm reduction.

Prohibition is fueling police officers to come into our schools and
search students and their lockers. Teachers need to be a part of the
liberalization of marijuana laws and along with their students,
implement the changes that need to occur. Aggressive police action in
our schools is the wrong message to be giving our students. Our
schools need to be clean of drugs and alcohol, but also safe, healthy,
communicative environments; places for debate and progressive change.
Recent incidents in Canadian and US schools have created anxiety and
mistrust.

Educators for Sensible Drug Policy will be looking closely at drug
policy and reform and we will focus on how educators can become more
informed, open and truthful. We need teachers to understand how
prohibition is anti-child and anti-family. Students need to ask
questions and be encouraged to openly debate drug issues. Programs
need to be developed for younger children because they are the most
vulnerable to indoctrination.

Drug abuse is a serious health issue; we are hopeful that Health
Canada will help us lead the way. Our intentions are to work closely
with federal departments, notably the Department of Justice and the
Office of the Solicitor General of Canada. Part of our strategy
involves changes to the law. This is why Educators for Sensible Drug
Policy will stay committed to providing the most accurate and up to
date information for our educators. We hope our actions will make
Canada 's schools safer places in which to teach and learn.

If you are an educator and want to renew your commitment to end
prohibition and help bring drug reform into our schools, please
contact us at the address below.

"No movement for social change can hope to succeed unless it makes the
most advanced intellectual and technical achievements its own, and
unless it is rooted in those strata of the population that are
productive and creative in every domain" Noam Chomsky

Judith Renaud, Educators for Sensible Drug Policy, http://EFSDP.org,
Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada (604) 886-8665 jude@EFSDP.org