STOP POINTING GUNS AT OUR KIDS

As the mother of a teenager, I share the outrage experienced by
parents of Stratford High School students, who were recently
terrorized by Goose Creek, South Carolina police. In an effort to
purge the school of drugs, law enforcement was called in by the
administration. After rounding up the students, pointing guns at them,
and searching their lockers, no drugs were found. The students,
however, were scared to death.

The use of weapons on the Stratford High School campus is testament to
the failure of our efforts to stop young people from using drugs, and
the frustration experienced by school officials.

No parent wants their teenager to use drugs. We should understand,
however, that teenage experimentation is not surprising in a country
that aggressively advertises alcohol and anti-depressants on prime
time TV, rendering these and other kinds of drugs a part of American
culture. Teens who experiment with alcohol and other drugs are not
necessarily bad kids, nor are their parents necessarily failing to do
their job. It's just that in reality, America is not drug free, and
neither are our teenagers.

Although the incident in Goose Creek was isolated, it was no more
successful than any other attempt to keep young people from
experimenting with drugs in the last 20 years. As parents, it's one
thing to read about our country's War on Drugs. It really hits home,
however, when our own children are subjected to the violence that has
characterized this failed policy.

We tried "just say no," which entered our vernacular in 1980 when
marijuana use had already peaked and was on the decline. Still, with
Reagan's new "tough on crime" posture and the First Lady's pet
project, anti-drug funding (and sentiment) increased sharply.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program reached children in
80 percent of school districts across the country.

The private sector got involved in the crusade, with the Partnership
for a Drug-Free America filling the airwaves with images and warnings.
Who could forget the egg-in-the-frying-pan "this is your brain"
commercials?

By the early 1990s, an American teenager had to be living under a rock
to have missed anti-drug messages.

But then a strange shift began to occur. Despite universal
school-based prevention programs, anti-drug ads, intolerance of
illegal drugs, and a "lock 'em up" attitude, national surveys
indicated that teenage use of alcohol and other drugs was increasing.

Teens, it seemed, were becoming bored, rather than frightened, by
fear-based messages about drugs, and bone-tired of admonishments to
abstain. Obviously the message wasn't effective, with half of all
teens experimenting with illegal drugs, and 80 percent trying alcohol
before graduating from high school.

As a response to increased alcohol and other drug use among teenagers,
and to let them know we meant business, "zero tolerance" policies were
implemented in secondary schools across the country. Students were
regularly suspended, or even expelled for possession or use of a range
of substances, including Tylenol and Midol. Drug-sniffing dogs were
unleashed on campuses in an effort to locate drugs, and to further
"send a message."

The tentacles of the growing urine testing industry reached teenagers
when the testing of athletes became de rigeur in the mid-1990s.
Recently the Supreme Court ruled that student drug testing is legal
for all extracurricular activities, and the Office of National Drug
Control Policy is pushing the testing of all secondary school students
(to the delight of the drug testing industry, and with no evidence
that it actually works to deter drug use). For many American
teenagers, the Fourth Amendment of our Bill of Rights has become an
historical artifact. Not to mention that in America we are all
supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, not the other
way around.

But there is another way. While government agencies continue to devise
increasingly harsh policies to no avail, real parents in the real
world living with real teenagers, myself among them, are looking at
pragmatic alternatives to zero tolerance.

Today's parents, like those in Goose Creek, are skeptical of policies
that demonize and frighten their teenagers without ensuring their
health, well-being, and safety. If total abstinence isn't a realistic
alternative, we want our teens to be educated about drugs by giving
them scientific, honest information, not exaggerated claims designed
(unsuccessfully) to scare them. We want school policies that protect
students without jeopardizing the future of those who make immature
mistakes. We want counseling and support, rather than humiliation,
suspension, expulsion, or, as in the case of Stratford High, violence.

Our children's safety should be top priority when it comes to
educating them about drugs. Pointing guns at their heads is not the
answer.

Marsha Rosenbaum, PhD, directs the Safety First drug education project
at the Drug Policy Alliance in San Francisco.