DRUG EDUCATION MUST BE TRUTHFUL

By Robert Sharpe Program Officer Lindesmith Drug Center/ Drug Policy
Foundation Washington, D.C.

The Dec. 6 editorial on marijuana use among Florida teens listed a host of
reefer-madness myths designed to support the claim that marijuana is as
harmful as other drugs.

Sensationalist claims are great for scaring concerned parents into
supporting a $50 billion drug war, but they can cause teen-agers to
question the legitimacy of drug education.

The average teen-ager knows far more about the effects of various drugs
than does Jim McDonough, director of the state's Office of Drug Control.
The reason kids believe marijuana is less harmful than alcohol is because
they have witnessed first-hand the effects of both.

Unlike marijuana, which never has been shown to cause an overdose death,
alcohol poisoning kills thousands of Americans every year. Likewise,
tobacco is easily one of the most highly addictive drugs available.

Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but that's not the
point. Teen-agers who realize they are being lied to about marijuana often
make the mistake of assuming that harder drugs are relatively harmless as
well. This is a recipe for disaster.

After two decades of scare tactics courtesy of the Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program, heroin use among high school seniors is at record
levels. Anti-drug education programs need to be reality- based or they may
backfire when kids inevitably are exposed to drug use among their peers.