ALCOHOL IS THE MOST ABUSED DRUG

Editor:

The Burnaby school district is to be commended for involving students in
discussions on a new drug policy. Substance abuse is the only public health
issue wherein key stakeholders are not only ignored but actively persecuted
and incarcerated.

In addition to involving students, parents should be recruited to do their
part. The importance of parental involvement in reducing drug use cannot be
overstated.

School-based extracurricular activities have also been shown to reduce drug
use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're most prone to getting
into trouble.

In order for drug education to be effective it has to be credible. The most
popular recreational drug and the one most closely associated with violent
behavior is often overlooked. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more
lives every year than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be legal, but
it's still the number one drug problem.

For decades, drug education has been dominated by sensationalist programs
like Drug Abuse Resistance Education. While Canadian schools are just
beginning to implement DARE, schools in the US are dropping it. Every
independent, methodologically sound evaluation of DARE has found the
program to be either ineffective or counterproductive.

DARE's scare tactics do more harm than good. Students who realize they are
being lied to about marijuana often make the mistake of assuming that
harder drugs like heroin are relatively harmless as well. This is a recipe
for disaster. Drug education programs must be reality-based or they may
backfire when kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among their peers.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A., Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, DC