RECONSIDER
Quarterly
WINTER 2001—2002 VOLUME 1, NUMBER 4
P R E S ER V E L I B E R T Y & R E D U C E H A R M
The
RECONSIDERQuarterly..... is actually only published intermittently
by ReconsiDer: Forum on Drug
Policy as time and money allow. We
continue to call it a quarterly, however,
Table of Contents because, according to our executive di-
rector, it sounds good and, after all, one
Features: can cut or fold it into quarters! Its pur-
2 Are We Doing Enough? pose is to provide members and non-
By Michael R. Roona and Alexandra Eyle members with information about the
Drug War in order to promote discus-
4 A Guide to Shopping for Drug Education Programs sion of drug policy issues among its
By Alexandra Eyle readers and their friends and col-
leagues. It also serves to communicate
6 We Wasted Billions on D.A.R.E. to local political leaders that there is a
By Edward Shepard, Ph.D. growing, active, informed and deter-
12 What It Was Like to Drop the D.A.R.E. Program mined constituency that wants funda-
An Interview with Salt Lake City Mayor Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson mental changes in drug policies.
Drug Education —
Where Do We Go
from Here?
When Drug Abuse Resistance Education September 2001 through June 2006. The California, tells us how he helps his
(D.A.R.E.) was first launched in 1983, survey will include an assessment of how sociology students decode drug educa-
parents welcomed it, believing it would well the program was implemented, tion messages — and what it takes to
help keep their children safe. But some students’ receptivity to the program, gain students’ trust.
found that D.A.R.E. wasn’t working the interviews with dropouts, and analyses of
Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, mayor of Salt
way they’d hoped it would. school and community data in order to
Lake City, talks about how citizens of
understand the contextual impact on the
“In 1994, D.A.R.E. invaded the serenity of Salt Lake City reacted when he stopped
program’s delivery and outcome.
our home,” Steve Finichel, a doctor from funding D.A.R.E. — and offers advice to
New Jersey, told us last fall. “My 10-year- Is D.A.R.E. America to be applauded for other mayors.
old son began to cry uncontrollably at revising its program? Or should it be
Marsha Rosenbaum, Ph.D., a medical
dinner, informing his mother and me condemned, as Salt Lake City Mayor
sociologist and the director of the
that the wine we were about to drink Rocky Anderson put it, for foisting this
Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Founda-
takes 14 minutes from our lives. He also fraud on the American public in the first
tion, tells how she came to write her
informed us that we were alcoholics. To place, and trying to salvage its reputa-
ground breaking booklet, Safety First.
make matters worse, he put a tip into the tion by using our children as guinea
classroom D.A.R.E. box and was fright- pigs? How did we end up in this situa- Susan Koningen, a single mother from
ened that soon we would be taken off to tion? And where should we go from here? Australia, shares her story of how she
jail. . .” Experts in the field helped us answer has coped with drug abuse in her own
these questions. family — and is helping others to do the
To make matters worse, studies found
same.
that the program wasn’t working. In Michael R. Roona, executive director of
2001, the U.S. Surgeon General placed it Social Capital Development Corporation, We also offer a brief Guide to Shopping
under the category of “Ineffective served as an advisor to the developers of for Drug Education Programs.
Programs.” D.A.R.E. America first the new D.A.R.E. curriculum. He takes us
from D.A.R.E.’s beginnings up to the Shifting our focus from drug education
defended the program, then worked with
present, and shares his concerns about to the broader issue of drug policy, we
the Institute of Health and Social Policy,
the new program. invited Kevin Zeese, president of Com-
at the University of Akron, to revise it,
mon Sense for Drug Policy, to review
using a grant from the Robert Wood
Edward Shepard, Ph.D., associate After Prohibition: An Adult Approach to
Johnson Foundation.
professor and chair of the LeMoyne Drug Policies in the 21st Century, edited
About 37,000 7th-graders are now taking College Department of Economics, by Timothy Lynch, director of the Cato
part in the program, known as the undertook a ground breaking study to Institute.
Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention find out how much D.A.R.E. has cost us.
Study, which was launched in September In the process, he discovered that D.A.R.E. This special issue of the Quarterly is far
2001 in 87 school districts in six selected costs more than we knew. from the final word on drug education.
cities — New Orleans, Houston, Los But if it motivates teachers, parents and
Rodney Skager, Ph.D., professor emeritus community leaders to rethink our
Angeles, Newark, St. Louis, and Detroit.
of the UCLA Graduate School of Educa- approach to find new and productive
All of the districts were randomly
tion and Information Studies, draws on ways to cut drug use and the harms it
assigned the new program, with half
his talks with teens to tell us what inflicts, then we’ve achieved our goal.
getting the new program and half serving
educational approaches might be best to Only by examining this issue openly can
as the control group and continuing
follow. we uncover better ways to talk to kids
their old drug abuse prevention activi-
about drugs.
ties. To determine the program’s success,
all 37,000 students will be surveyed from
Craig Reinarman, Ph.D., professor and R
chair of sociology at the University of Alexandra Eyle, editor
W
hen most people think of
He also is directing an evaluation of a family-strengthening and student assis-
D.A.R.E., they think of the ubiquitous
tance counseling program for children whose parents are in methadone main-
17-week drug education program
tenance and other drug treatment programs (for the Center for Substance Abuse
taught to fifth- or sixth-graders in 80%
Prevention); helping substance abuse and mental health treatment providers
of the school districts across the United
improve treatment for clients who are simultaneously dealing with mental
States. But D.A.R.E. is more than this
health and substance abuse problems (for the Center for Mental Health Ser-
one program. D.A.R.E. is both a se-
vices); and conducting a meta-analysis of school-based drug education pro-
quence of drug education curricula
gram evaluations (for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). He has written
designed to be implemented in elemen-
the sections on childhood and adolescent substance abuse for the first edition
tary, middle, and high schools and a
of The Encyclopedia of Prevention and Health Promotion, available this June.
complex set of institutional relation-
He is an active ReconsiDer member. Michael Roona may be reached at 518-
ships that collectively constitute the
433-1755 or at mroona@social-capital.org.
most comprehensive infrastructure for
the implementation of prevention pro- D.A.R.E. Then and Now: The original D.A.R.E. program only emphasizes
gramming across the United States and dangers of drug use through lectures. The revised program will try to ex-
the world. plore the dangers through interactive teaching methods, and will, D.A.R.E.
D.A.R.E. had rather humble beginnings.
says, also help students to:
It was established in Los Angeles in • Examine and understand their own beliefs related to alcohol, tobacco,
1983 by a curriculum developer named inhalant and other drug use and consequences
• Communicate positively in social and interpersonal situations
Ruth Rich who was working with the
• Develop and use assertiveness/refusal skills
Los Angeles Unified School District and
the Los Angeles Police Department. • Recognize, defuse, and avoid potentially violent situations
About half of Rich’s Drug Abuse Resis- • Make positive quality-of-life decisions.
tance Education (D.A.R.E.) curriculum
used materials and artwork developed Los Angeles Police Department, which Darryl Gates’ extremist fantasies that
by Dr. William Hansen, who had cre- together with the Los Angeles Unified the D.A.R.E. program emerged and
ated them for his Project S.M.A.R.T. School District, spawned D.A.R.E. A grew. But D.A.R.E.’s ideological foun-
drug education program. frightening glimpse into Gates’ mind, dations are less relevant today, partly
When the first preliminary evaluation and the setting in which D.A.R.E. grew because this emphasis on abstinence
of D.A.R.E. showed that the program and prospered, can be found in Gates’ has been reinforced by the Drug Free
had the potential to prevent substance 1990 testimony before the U.S. Senate Schools and Communities Act, which
use by kids, the D.A.R.E. system began that the “casual user ought to be taken denies financial assistance to schools
to grow prolifically. Nancy Reagan, out and shot, because he or she has no for any federal program unless those
wife of then President Ronald Reagan, reason for using drugs.” When asked schools teach that the use of illicit
had launched her “Just Say No” cam- about this outrageous testimony, Gates drugs and the unlawful possession and
paign, providing a context for D.A.R.E.’s stressed that he was not “being face- use of alcohol is wrong and harmful.
rapid growth. The “Just Say No” man- tious” and asserted that marijuana us- In addition, D.A.R.E. has become a
tra, while hopelessly naïve, was consis- ers were guilty of treason.1 multimillion-dollar industry with cor-
tent with the zealous, zero-tolerance porate officers earning six-figure sala-
So it was in the context of Nancy
attitude of Darryl Gates, Chief of the ries; D.A.R.E. now may be more inter-
Reagan’s “Just Say No” crusade and
ested in preserving its lucrative empire
“Buyer Beware”
rette use, has had mixed results with clearly stated rationales and whether than in critically reviewing the re-
alcohol use, and has not been evalu- they were implemented effectively. search.”
ated in preventing use of harder drugs, While such factors may contribute to
In the Department of Education’s case,
such as heroin, cocaine, or speed. program effectiveness, using such in-
the panel identified 33 “promising”
puts rather than outputs — such as sta-
• Opinions of “expert panels” should programs and nine “exemplary” pro-
tistically significant drops in drug use
be closely scrutinized. For instance, the grams for the Department of Educa-
among the program participants — to
panel created by the Department of tion. The nine exemplary programs
define program effectiveness is prob-
Education to evaluate 132 prevention cited are: Athletes Training and Learn-
lematic. “One problem with ‘expert
programs did not focus on the effect of ing to Avoid Steroids ( ATLAS ),
panel’ reviews,” says a program analyst,
programs on substance use behaviors. CASASTART, Life Skills Training, OSLC
who wished to remain anonymous, “is
Rather, the Education Department’s Treatment Foster Care, Project ALERT,
that they often consist of an old boy
panel determined which programs Project Northland- Alcohol Prevention
network more interested in maintain-
were exemplary by assessing whether
ing funding for prevention programs
program content and processes had
(Continued on page 11)
By Edward Shepard, Ph.D. Editor’s Note: Edward Shepard is an associate professor and chair of the LeMoyne
College Department of Economics. He is also a ReconsiDer member who has
been interested in economic evaluations of drug policy issues for several years.
S
ince D.A.R.E. first opened in Los
Dr. Shepard has over two decades’ experience in conducting economic studies
Angeles schools in 1983, it has grown
and received his doctoral degree in Economics from Boston College. Areas of
into a national curriculum. According
specialization are microeconomics, labor economics, cost-benefit research, and
to D.A.R.E. America and the U.S. De-
applied productivity studies. He has authored or coauthored papers that have
partment of Justice, almost 50,000 po-
appeared in Industrial Relations, Working USA, the International Journal of
lice officers have been trained for the
Manpower, the Journal of Housing Economics, and Public Finance Quarterly.
program since its inception, and are
Dr. Shepard has presented research findings at several national conferences,
teaching classes in over 10,000 commu-
including the 1999 and 2001 Drug Policy Foundation conferences. Prior work
nities and in over 300,000 classrooms
on drug testing and productivity received attention in the national press in
in all 50 states. By the late 1990s, the
articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Morning
program reached an estimated 80 per-
News. He also provided input into the ACLU report on drug testing in the work-
cent of school districts nationwide.2
place and was interviewed about the economics of drug testing on National
The extensive use of D.A.R.E. in the Public Radio. Dr. Shepard is married, with three children in the public school
nation’s schools points to the need for systems in Central New York. He may be reached at shepard@mail.lemoyne.edu.
an economic evaluation of the costs,
benefits, and effectiveness of the pro-
gram. Are law enforcement and edu-
of D.A.R.E., but focuses instead on esti- significant uncertainty, and a wide
cational resources being utilized effi-
mating the program’s economic costs. range of conflicting estimates, about
ciently by the program? Does it gen-
Over the past decade there have been a the costs or resources that are used to
erate benefits for the community and
number of studies that address effec- support the program. This provided the
society at large? Are alternative pro-
tiveness issues but, as mentioned ear- central motivation for the research that
grams more effective or less costly in
lier, no formal scientific study of eco- is summarized in my report —
achieving the goals of reducing illicit
nomic costs. Yet information on eco- LeMoyne College Institute of Industrial
drug use or abuse? In recent years
nomic costs should be an important Relations Research Paper Number 22,
there have been scientific evaluations
part of a comprehensive evaluation of November 2001, The Economic Costs
of the program that found that D.A.R.E.
the D.A.R.E. program. Economists hold of D.A.R.E. My goal in conducting this
has not succeeded in reducing illicit
that the economic merits of a program study was to provide reasonable esti-
drug use among young people.3 (See
can be evaluated by applying cost-ben- mates of the economic costs of the pro-
Are We Doing Enough, page 2 of this
efit and cost-effectiveness analyses. In gram. In this exclusive article for The
issue.) Since this is its major goal and
a cost-benefit analysis, the economic ReconsiDer Quarterly, I am reporting
purpose, this suggests that there may
costs and benefits of a particular pro- the estimates arrived at by this study,
be no direct benefits at all for commu-
gram are quantified to determine and reviewing the research method
nities from participation in the pro-
whether net benefits are generated and and overall findings. I hope that this
gram. There is even less information
whether society is better off with a pro- information will prove valuable to
about the costs of D.A.R.E., and no for-
gram than without it. In a cost-effec- other researchers, who might wish to
mal scientific studies of D.A.R.E. costs
tive analysis, two or more alternative evaluate D.A.R.E.’s cost-benefit or cost-
are currently available. Since D.A.R.E.
programs are evaluated to determine effectiveness issues. (The complete
is funded primarily through tax dollars,
which is most efficient — that is, which study is available at www.reconsider.
it is essential that reliable information
program achieves the program goals at org, or by contacting shepard@mail.
about both costs and benefits be ob-
lowest cost. To do either analysis, reli- lemoyne.edu.)
tained to evaluate the overall efficacy
able information on economic costs is
of the program. The study found that the estimated
needed. There is, however, no central-
annual economic costs of D.A.R.E., na-
This article does not address the ized accounting of the funds used in
tionwide, are between $1 billion and
broader concerns of the effectiveness D.A.R.E. programs, and thus there is
received no measurable
or private foundations. Last
equivalent D.A.R.E. officers
year, for example, a grant
nationwide is estimated to
be between 7,838 and 9,264.
This information was used
benefit from participation in for $13.7 million from the
Robert Wood Johnson
to estimate the annual eco- the program.... Foundation was awarded to
the University of Akron for
nomic costs of D.A.R.E. na-
a five-year study to evaluate
tionwide.
and redesign the D.A.R.E. curriculum.25
a regional or state training center. The
National Estimates of the The costs of research, evaluation, as-
U.S. Department of Justice provides
Economic Costs of D.A.R.E.: sessment, and redesign of the curricu-
$1.7 million each year to D.A.R.E.
A Summary of Findings lum should be included as part of the
America, which uses the funds for
Cost of officer services: According to economic costs of the program. A cost
training at four regional training cen-
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, of about $3 million per year appears
ters located throughout the country.
the average wages and salaries of full- reasonable and is a very small part of
In addition, 46 states have established
time patrol officers nationwide is ap- the overall cost of the program.
their own training centers. The esti-
proaching $40,000 per year.19 Benefits mated cost of training a D.A.R.E. officer Most states have offices with state em-
for insurance, retirement, health cov- is about $4,000.21 In many cases the ployees or law enforcement officers
erage, and so forth, are usually about training is paid for, at least in part, by who serve as D.A.R.E. coordinators.
federal or state funds. With an esti-
T
here is no doubt about it. Fed- gram director at the School’s Center for the Study of Evaluation and while on
eral drug education programs have academic leave served as senior researcher at the UNESCO Institute of Educa-
failed. The government is spending tion in Hamburg, Germany (1975-76). He has been a consultant or part-time
between 1 and 1.3 billion a year try- staff member at WestEd (formerly Southwest Regional Educational Labora-
ing, through its D.A.R.E. program, to tory) since 1992.
get kids to stop using drugs.1 The data In 1985 he was asked by California Attorney General John Van de Kamp to
regularly show that students continue develop and administer a secondary school survey of substance use and related
to use drugs despite abstinence-based, information (California Student Substance Use Survey). The survey was later
zero-tolerance drug education pro- mandated as a biennial effort by the California legislature and now is also spon-
grams. sored by the California Department of Education and Alcohol and Drug Pro-
Last year an annual national survey, grams. WestEd, a nonprofit California educational R&D organization, has ad-
Monitoring the Future, reported that ministered the survey since 1991 and Dr. Skager has continued as its co-
54 percent of American 12th-graders director. In addition, he served as outside evaluator for the Addiction Technol-
had tried an illicit drug at least once in ogy Transfer Center at UC San Diego on a long-term project sponsored by the
their lifetime.2 Forty-nine percent had Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and also as Principal Investigator for a
tried marijuana. The true rates of use national project sponsored by the Center for Substance Use Prevention. The
are probably higher, however. Even on latter incorporated developmental programs addressing children and parents
anonymous surveys, self-reported use in substance abusing families and adolescent mothers.
is likely to be somewhat lower than Dr. Skager has published research articles and reports on school-based identi-
true rates of use, because not all re- fication and intervention programs for children from alcohol and drug abusing
spondents will be willing to report il- families, self-esteem and substance use, school characteristics associated with
legal behavior even under conditions student substance use, attributes of high-risk adolescent substance users, and
of apparent anonymity. prevention policy. He is a contributing editor of Prevention File and a member
When teens are asked to estimate the of the board of directors of the Phoenix Houses of California as well as a former
percentage of schoolmates of their own member of the research advisory board of “Just Say No” International. He has
age who have tried marijuana, the taught measurement, research design and qualitative research methods at the
numbers are much higher than the graduate level. His current teaching responsibilities include adolescent devel-
percentages obtained from self-report opment and prevention education. Rodney Skager may be reached at 831-484-
surveys. In the latest California survey 2767 or at rskager@redshift.com.
72 percent of 11th-graders believed
that half or more of their peers had
tried marijuana, while only 46 percent really are, and it is perception that es- cated people now feel that it’s not re-
said they ever used it. Forty-four per- tablishes what is ordinary or normal. ally a serious drug. It’s funny, it’s ac-
cent believed half or more used Believing that a majority of one’s peers cepted, we know most people have tried
monthly, but only 26 percent said they have tried marijuana tends to legitima- it at some point, so it’s not a bad drug.”
used it in the previous month!3 tize use of that drug, but this does not (This and later comments from young
necessarily apply to other illicit drugs people in their late teens or early 20s
Some researchers dismiss youth esti- or to problematic use. As a third year were collected by peer interviewers as
mates of peer drug use, arguing that university student observed, “We ac- part of an ongoing study of youth atti-
they exaggerate actual prevalence lev- cept pot way more than other drugs. I tudes about, and experience with,
els. In so doing, these researchers miss mean, you watch TV and there are jokes drugs.)
the point entirely. Estimated peer use about pot. Everybody’s laughing. If they
reflects youth perception of how things Most teenagers know things about
talk about shooting up heroin,
drugs than they were never told in pre-
nobody’s really laughing…most edu-
Helping Teens
Who Are in Trouble with
Alcohol or Illicit Drugs
Good teachers are likely to be ap-
proached by students seeking help for
their drug problem, whether it is with
alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drugs. They
cannot turn away at this critical mo-
ment. They must know how to inter-
vene effectively, and connect the child
to appropriate resources or agencies in
the school and community. Ideally,
there should be a substance abuse
counselor at the school to whom the
classroom facilitator can refer problem
users.
All schools should offer a Student As-
sistance Program for such students.
This is the compassionate and socially
responsible alternative to suspension
Still True? Still True!
18 THE RECONSIDER QUARTERLY
Recommended Reading:
AFTER PROHIBITION: AN ADULT APPROACH
TO DRUG POLICIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Timothy Lynch, Editor
Cato Institute 2000
Paper. 193 pp.
$18.95
A
lmost seven years ago, I long-term unemployed.
awoke in the middle of the
night to the sound of someone Koningen, a single mother, tells her story
pounding on my door, a force- of almost losing her child to drugs. She
now works full-time helping parents and
ful rat-tat-tat that stated ‘Get children cope with drug addiction.
up — this is important!’ I
grabbed my dressing gown and She has created a 12-week recovery pro-
bolted for the door. gram for families, Empowering Families
to Break Down the Barriers. Over the past
“Dear God,” I thought, “please six years, over 700 families have sought
let everything be okay.” and received information, education, and
support from her. According to Koningen,
Opening the door, I faced two 80 percent have “been empowered to take
policemen. A million scenarios responsibility for developing solutions to
flashed through my mind, but their problems and, thereby, reconcile
none came even close to the re- and consolidate the family unit.” Twenty
ality of why the boys in blue percent drop out, but some return. As for
were calling on me that night. the children who are the focus of the
One of the officers spoke. “Do families’ efforts, Koningen says:
• 40 percent are in remittance.
you have a son called Brett?” I • 40 percent have reduced usage, im-
answered “Yes, I do.” Then, “Do proved social skills, and strengthened
you know of an Amy Johnston?” family bonds.
Again I answered “Yes, she is • 20 percent have been referred to other
my son’s fiancée. What’s hap- health organizations because of exten-
pened?” didn’t know what to say to my son to sive psychiatric/psychological difficul-
help him! Each morning when I awoke, ties, and the family has united and been
I motioned for them to enter. Once in- my first two thoughts were: Is he okay, supportive.
side, the older of the officers spoke. or will I find him dead in his bed? Oh Koningen has just formed The Federa-
“I’m afraid we have some bad news.” God, please help me find a way to help tion of Youth & Family Affairs, where she
My bland stare belied my terror. I held my son. serves as CEO and “life skills specialist,”
my breath while he continued. “I have addressing the multiple problems faced
been advised to inform you that Amy My fingers became worn to the bone by youth and families in today’s society
is dead, and your son is in intensive through trying to find someone to help through three programs. In addition to
care at St. John’s Hospital. We believe us. The ignorance and judgmental at- offering the Empowering Families to
it was a drug-induced suicide pact.” titudes of those in the “helping” pro- Break Down the Barriers program, the
fessions, plus their lack of compassion, federation is forming two more pro-
I felt as though my heart had been torn inexperience or inability to counsel us, grams: The Chrysalis Program, an early
from my body, and the pain was so in- left us feeling isolated and alienated intervention program to help teens draw
tense that I could barely draw breath. on their inner resources, and use them
from society. I thank God that my son for their own health, well being, matu-
Then tears of grief flooded my con- was able to find some support to try to ration, and sense of satisfaction; and
sciousness. make sense of his life. I was not so for- Freedom of Choice, which will help
That was seven long years ago. The fol- tunate. people leaving treatment to re-enter so-
ciety without relapsing into drug or al-
lowing months were a nightmare. I cohol abuse.
Determined that no parent should have
to face this shattering experience alone,
R
obert M. Hutchins, former Presi-
tors of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, as a consultant to the
dent of the University of Chicago, once
World Health Organization’s Programme on Substance Abuse, and as principal
wrote that “the object of education is
investigator on research grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and
to prepare the young to educate them-
the National Institute of Justice. Dr. Reinarman is the author of American States
selves throughout their lives.” I do not
of Mind (Yale University Press, 1987), coauthor of Cocaine Changes (Temple
think drug education as currently prac-
University Press, 1991), and co-editor of Crack in America: Demon Drugs and
ticed meets this objective, because I
Social Justice (University of California Press, 1997). He has published articles
think drug education is not generally
on drug use, law, and policy in Theory and Society, British Journal of Addiction,
designed as education at all. At best,
International Journal of Drug Policy, Addiction Research, and Contemporary
most so-called drug education is de-
Drug Problems, and other journals. Craig Reinarman may be reached at 831-
signed to teach young people what to
459-2617 or at craigo@cats.ucsc.edu.
think rather than how to think. At
worst, it is moral ideology masquerad-
ing as medical science. In this essay, I
versity, for example, each and every evitable if not normative. All this is a
attempt to describe some of the lessons
new student is briefed on the dangers way of saying that one of the things that
I have drawn from my experiences
of drugs — licit and illicit — and the we might want to think more about is
teaching a university-level sociology
rules against using them, upon enter- the nature, efficacy, and unintended
course about drugs, in the hope that
ing the dormitory (which, some par- consequences of drug education for
these reflections will stimulate other
ents suspect, may be as much about college and university students.
teachers to reflect upon their own ex-
covering the university’s institutional
periences. To prepare this essay, I tried to reflect
ass as it is about anything else). Yet,
on my own practices after teaching a
The overwhelming focus of drug edu- beyond the exposure students get to
course called “Drugs and Society” to
cation efforts is on elementary and high drug education as part of their orien-
about 200 undergraduates each year for
school students. On one level, this is tation, there is little more than the
the past 15 years. These practices, I
as it should be: get them before they usual array of “just say no” and “here
soon realized, were not so much
start and you'll have less aggregate risk. are the risks” pamphlets, local 12-step
thought out ahead of time as they were
But on another level, there is an irony group meeting schedules in the
figured out as I went along, flying by
here, for college is when millions of counselor's waiting room, and hapless
the seat of my pedagogical pants, learn-
young people begin their drug use — residence assistants halfheartedly
ing from those I was teaching. In what
if not their very first use of any drug, spouting the rules in what is, outside
follows, I try to make explicit some of
often their first use of some drugs, and of some Bible colleges, usually a
the things I intuited as I went along
more often than not their first regular Sisyphian struggle against students’
and to share a few principles that seem
use, especially underage alcohol use, search for altered states.
to have worked.
which is, for most of them, “illicit drug
After all, going away to college is to
use.” It is in college where the family A Paradoxical Premise
some degree about testing oneself,
norms that most parents hope will keep
about taking risks, about exploring One of the first things I learned from
their children away from drug abuse
consciousness, and about living inde- my students was that they had been
are most attenuated.
pendently, out of visual range of the bombarded by what they saw as heavy-
Not that colleges and universities don't panopticonic parental gaze from which handed anti-drug propaganda, and that
have drug and alcohol education avail- the student has just, in a sense, es- if I wanted them to take me seriously,
able for students; they do. At my uni- caped. If that is a reasonable albeit par- to believe I knew something worth
tial description of college life, then a
certain amount of drug taking is in-
T
wo years ago I wrote Safety First: land, Sacramento and San Francisco. She received her doctorate in sociology
A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, from the University of California at San Francisco in 1979. From 1977 to 1995
Drugs and Drug Education, a 17-page Rosenbaum was the principal investigator on ten grants funded by the Na-
booklet published by the Lindesmith tional Institute on Drug Abuse, completing studies of female heroin addicts,
Center. Since then, over 30,000 copies methadone maintenance treatment and policy, MDMA (Ecstasy), cocaine, and
have been distributed to public and drug use during pregnancy. She is the author of the book Women on Heroin
private schools, state and local health and coauthor of the books Pursuit of Ecstasy: The MDMA Experience and Preg-
agencies, public policy institutes, treat- nant Women on Drugs: Combating Stereotypes and Stigma, as well as numer-
ment facilities, military bases, and in- ous scholarly articles about drug use, drug addiction, and drug policy. She is
dividual parents and educators in all also the author of three booklets: Just Say What?: An Alternative View of Solv-
50 states and 31 countries around the ing America’s Drug Problem; Kids, Drugs, and Drug Education: A Harm Reduc-
world. Initially, many were sent at our tion Approach; and Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and
initiative, but then we began receiving Drug Education. Her opinion pieces have appeared in many national publica-
thousands of requests for additional tions, including Newsday, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times. Dr. Rosenbaum
copies from around the world. And of co-chaired the international conferences “Just Say Know: New Directions in
the many comments I received about Drug Education” and “The State of Ecstasy: The Medicine, Science and Culture
this booklet, almost none were critical of MDMA.”
of it.
Why was this publication so popular
among parents and teachers? I believe activity (including sex education), this own daughter went down the same
its popularity is due to the fact that it was the first I had heard of Drug Abuse dangerous road as that nice Jewish
is one of the few publications advocat- Resistance Education. heroin addict? I became curious about
ing a harm reduction perspective re- what D.A.R.E. was teaching my child,
Although I was working at the time as
garding teenagers and drugs. The mes- and so I set out to learn more about
a researcher for the National Institute
sage seems to have resonated. America’s drug education programs. In
on Drug Abuse, drug education had not
the course of my research, I discovered
Responding to Misinformation been my focus. But now my daughter’s
that anti-drug messages have been
What prompted me to write this book- words made me remember the nice
around for nearly a century, from Tem-
let, and the reason for the almost uni- Jewish girl I’d once interviewed, who
perance tales of permanent alcohol-
versal support it has received, goes back happened to be an incarcerated heroin
induced brain damage to Reefer Mad-
to something that happened back in addict. She’d gotten into hard drugs
ness-style warnings about marijuana.
1987. That year, my daughter, then in after taking a high school drug educa-
Then Reagan’s escalation of the War on
fifth-grade, returned from school and tion class in which she was told that
Drugs kicked drug education into high
proudly declared that she was part of both marijuana and heroin caused ad-
gear. Since the mid-1980s, preteens
the D.A.R.E. program, and now knew diction. She tried marijuana and real-
and teens have been exposed to a
about drugs. “When a person smokes ized she’d been lied to, so when heroin
plethora of “prevention” messages,
marijuana,” Annie announced, “half of came her way, she tried that, too. Like
from television ads to school-based
their brain cells are erased forever. many young people, she and her friends
classes to billboards to Red Ribbon pa-
That’s what the nice police officer told no longer believed anything adults told
rades. Young people have learned how
us, and he knows.” Although the school them about drugs.
to “just say no,” taken drug-free
had required parental permission for Now that drug education had become pledges, and been taught to make the
practically every other non-classroom personal, I was worried. What if my
Visit www.reconsider.org to receive ReconsiDer Tidbits and for more about the Drug Wars.
RECONSIDER:
FORUM ON DRUG POLICY
The War on Drugs has failed. We must make peace, heal our wounds and change our laws.