WHAT WILL STOP TEEN DRUG ABUSE? SCARE TACTICS OR GOOD NEWS?

It's a different strategy in the drug war.

You're cool if, like most teens your age, you don't try drugs.

Some experts say more young people might think twice about using drugs if
they honestly believed most of their peers weren't either. Others believe
youths will be less likely to use drugs if they are scared out of it.

Which approach is best is at the heart of a debate among some prevention
experts these days.

Members of the Illinois Drug Education Alliance and other experts say
focusing on how many people don't use drugs can make a difference. It won't
stop all drug use, but it takes away the "everybody's-doing-it" excuse,
they say.

Others, including federal drug czar John Walters and U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, a
Highland Park Republican, say it's time for a more in-your-face approach.
They are linking drug use to terrorism and individual responsibility.

"If you want Sept. 11 to happen again, buy drugs. That's where (the money)
goes," Kirk told a group of Wheeling middle school students recently.

Fear-provoking comments like that are making a comeback - to the dismay of
some drug prevention educators.

"I wouldn't advocate that," said Melissa Garrison, a prevention coordinator
for Rosecrance, a Rockford drug treatment center, adding that research has
indicated scare tactics are not successful.

A generation ago, television commercials showing an egg frying in a pan
with the slogan "This is your brain on drugs" were one way adults tried to
scare young people away from drugs.

Now a new round of TV commercials connects drug use and the funding of
terrorism. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
is promoting them as he tours the nation talking about drug prevention
education.

While there was a reported decline in Chicago-area emergency room visits
attributed to Ecstasy, marijuana and heroin use from 2000 to 2001, the
National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that party drugs, such as GHB and
LSD, are gaining popularity.

The Daily Herald found heroin and club drugs contributed to at least 13
suburban deaths during 2000 and 2001. The death rate of suburban teens and
young adults from heroin this year seems to be similar or increasing.

A University of Michigan survey indicated that marijuana use by
eighth-graders doubled what it was a decade ago. Last year, 20 percent said
they had used marijuana, compared to 10 percent in 1991. And, in 2001, 5
percent of those eighth-graders reported using Ecstasy, 4 percent used
cocaine and nearly 2 percent had used heroin at least once, the survey
indicated.

In order to get young people to stop, they need to know that using drugs
will be extremely harmful to their bodies, Garrison said. Knowing that
people are dying from drugs, for instance, might make a difference, she said.

Some substance abuse experts aren't so sure. "I'm seeing a resurgence in
scare tactics, and it scares me a lot because they are ineffective," said
Peter Palanca, regional vice president of Hazelden-Chicago, which
specializes in substance abuse treatment and recovery.

That approach, along with using recovering addicts to talk about their
lives, is proving less effective because young people tune them out as
repetitive, Palanca said.

But those tactics definitely work better than the "Just say no" campaign
some students have been getting for years, said Sheena Arora, a senior at
Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire.

Palanca believes the best strategy is to tell teens about positive
lifestyles and show them that most of their peers are choosing that path.
"What one perceives to be true is what formulates one's reality. What we
need to be doing is altering the kids' reality," he said.

Members of IDEA used that approach last week to celebrate Red Ribbon Week
in Illinois, an annual drug-free campaign.

"The majority of Illinois youth are not using drugs," said Paul Peronne,
organizer of Illinois' Red Ribbon Week. "You always hear the negative. You
don't hear the number of kids who didn't take drugs."

Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, considered a pioneer among colleges
in shifting attitudes about alcohol use, has seen a decline in binge
drinking. Officials attribute it, in part, to posters they created based on
the idea that most students don't abuse alcohol.

But Arora said drug education also should focus on parents, many of whom
she said are oblivious to the problem. "I know people who do drugs and have
alcohol problems and get high and get drunk every weekend," said Arora,
president of her senior class. "It's so close to home, it hurts."