Drug Abuse

GOAL NUMBER ONE: REDUCE THE HARM CAUSED BY DRUGS IN OUR SOCIETY
OBJECTIVE: REDUCE DRUG ABUSE AND USE AMONG YOUTH AND YOUNG
ADULTS
Rationale: Our nation should focus its efforts on

fact-based education as well as programs to
dissuade adolescents from the use of alcohol,
tobacco and illegal drugs.
Adolescent drug use has been rising steadily since

1991, which is the longest sustained increase in
adolescent drug use since the Monitoring the Future Survey began. After the release of the 1998
Monitoring the Future Survey,17 the ONDCP issued a surprising press release which stated
“Second Straight Year of No Significant Increases, Many Categories of Youth Drug Use Fall
Significantly.” General McCaffrey is quoted as saying, “The 1998 Study shows that we have
turned the tide of youth drug use.”18 Unfortunately, a review of the actual survey data shows a
sharply different result.
Survey data indicate that modest declines in the use of the traditionally popular drug marijuana
comprised the major portion of lowered numbers. This decline masked a continuing rise in hard
drug use by our youth. For instance, the percentage of high school seniors reporting lifetime
marijuana use dropped by 0.5%, but the percentage of high school seniors reporting lifetime
crack use increased by 0.5%. Twice as many students reported using heroin by the 8th grade in
1998 as was reported in 1991. Nearly three times as many students reported using crack by the
8th grade for the same time period. Exchanging marijuana use for crack and heroin is clearly not
the type of trade-off that most parents would like to see. The ONDCP's failure to mention any of
these significant issues in their official press statement cheats parents, educators and journalists
out of their ability to understand the dimensions of adolescent drug use.

Figure 9 Adolescent use of crack and heroin. Source: 1998 Monitoring the Future Survey, Institute for Social
Research, University of Michigan.
Recommendation 1: TRIPLE the current National Drug Control Strategy budget share for
reducing youth and young adult drug use.
Despite claims that the War on Drugs is

being fought to save future generations
of children from being hooked on
drugs, and despite Drug Czar Barry
McCaffrey's promise to focus his
office's efforts on youth drug use
prevention, the ONDCP is budgeting
less than 12% of the $100 billion it is
planning to allocate between 1998 and
2003 for reducing youth drug use.19 This
number is appallingly low and should
be significantly increased. For an
effective drug control strategy, we
believe that at least one-third of the
budget should be focused on reducing
youth drug use; therefore we
recommend that the ONDCP TRIPLE
its budget share to 34% for reducing
youth and young adult drug use.
Recommendation 2: Focus funding and efforts on strategies that have documented success
in reducing youth drug use.
According to SAMHSA, “alcohol and drug use

tends to be a chosen activity engaged in during
unstructured and unsupervised time.” 20 Therefore,
existing and expanded funding should not be spent
on simplistic anti-drug advertising campaigns, but
rather should be invested in youth. Programs
which provide positive and enriching activities,
“offset the attraction to, or otherwise meet the
needs usually filled by alcohol, tobacco and
drugs.”21
Researchers have noted that “adolescence is a

period in which youth reject conventionality and
traditional authority figures in an effort to
establish their own independence… drug use may be a 'default' activity engaged in when youth
have few or no opportunities to assert their independence in a constructive manner.”22 Moreover,
twice as many youths from low-income families are unsupervised for more than three hours per
day than youths from high-income families.23 In an independent study of the Big Brother/Big
Sister Program, researchers found that “Little Brothers and Little Sisters were 46% less likely to
start using illegal drugs, and 27% less likely to start drinking.” Little Brothers and Little Sisters
also did better in school, had better attendance records, and felt slightly better about how they
would perform in school.24 Constructive activities and mentoring programs provide a strong
environment for youths and young adults to reject all forms of drug use and provide benefits
across a wide array of indicators, such as school performance and self-esteem. These kinds of
strategies should be central to our efforts to reduce youth and young adult drug use because they
actually work.
Recommendation 3: Use facts, not scare-tactics to educate youth.
Education is a key component of any plan to

change self-destructive behavior. In order for it to
be effective and not undermine its purpose,
education must be completely factual and rational.
By relying on scare-tactics and unfounded
assertions, the current drug policy has failed to
achieve its purpose. Nowhere can this be more
clearly seen than where exaggerated claims about marijuana lead youth and young adults to
disbelieve information about harder drugs as well.25 Statements like the one shown at right by
Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, can confuse children. Since half
of all kids try marijuana before graduating from high school, there is a great deal of informal
knowledge about the drug among youth. Being told by public officials that there is no
substantive difference between marijuana and other drugs like heroin and cocaine, can “send the
wrong message” to kids – leading to experimentation with more dangerous drugs. By focusing
educational campaigns on information which is scientifically accurate, we can achieve our
educational goals and become a more credible force with the younger generation.
Recommendation 4: Redirect DARE funding into more productive and effective programs.
Support for the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance

Education)26 program must to be reconsidered.
Federally funded research conducted by the
Research Triangle Institute found that DARE had
no effect on youth and young adult drug use, and
that DARE students were no less likely to use
drugs than students who were not involved with
the program.27
A key aspect of DARE's failure to be effective

stems from the program's basic premise – the idea that police are appropriate teachers of health
information. Police do not teach children about sex education, hygiene or dental care, so why are
they teaching children about drugs? It sends the wrong message that drugs are a law enforcement
issue, rather than a public health issue. More importantly, a police officer may intimidate
adolescents who have experimented with drugs from asking lifesaving questions out of fear that
they will get into trouble.
In spite of DARE's documented lack of success and its inherent weaknesses, the federal drug
education budget provides a 'set aside' for DARE, ensuring that it continues to squander the few
prevention dollars this country spends on adolescent drug education. This a failure on the part of
our government to protect children from the dangers of drug use and drug abuse. At the very
least, DARE should be required to compete with other drug education programs and prove that it
can be effective.
Furthermore, since federally sponsored studies indicate that nearly 50% of all students try an
illegal drug before they graduate from high school, and 85% of students try alcohol,28 the goal of
drug education should be broadened to include reducing the harms related to alcohol and other
drug use, as well as preventing adolescent alcohol and other drug use from the outset.
Recommendation 5: Be responsible with the provision of anti-drug messages.
The ONDCP's newly launched $2 billion advertising campaign to make children aware of the
dangers of drug use has been approached in an unscientific and irresponsible way. There is no
evidence that advertising is likely to prevent drug abuse, and in fact highlighting drug use may
have the reverse effect. In the 1960s, media stories which promoted the dangers of using glue to
intoxicate oneself only served to inform children that the common substance could produce a
high, and “to popularize rather than to discourage the practice.” Prior to 1959, glue-sniffing was
virtually unknown, but with its publicity, the number of high school students who reported trying
it at least once rose to about 1 in 20 by the mid to late 1960s.30
Today, the ONDCP is running a series of advertisements on household inhalants which airs
during children's cartoons and while parents are away at work. Just as with the glue-sniffing
stories of the 1960s, it is very likely that most young people do not know that inhaling the vapors
of everyday household products can produce a high, until they view the advertisements on
television. Sending this information into the homes of children without parental consent is
irresponsible and has enormous potential for tragedy as children may decide to experiment with
the chemicals found under every kitchen sink. According to David Kiley, the Senior Editor of the
advertising industry's Brandweek, the research relied upon by the ONDCP, “hardly stands up to
the slightest breeze of inquiry. In some cases the validity of key parts of the research is even
refuted by the people responsible for it.”31
17
The Monitoring the Future Survey is an annual survey of drug use by 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students.
18
ONDCP, "1998 Monitoring the Future Study: Tide of Youth Drug Use Turns" December 18, 1998 (press release).
19
McCaffrey, Barry R. (1998). The National Drug Control Strategy, 1998: A Ten Year Plan. Washington, DC:
Office of National Drug Control Policy, p. 58.

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GOAL NUMBER ONE: REDUCE THE HARM CAUSED BY DRUGS IN OUR SOCIETY

Rationale: Our nation should focus its efforts on

Adolescent drug use has been rising steadily since

Despite claims that the War on Drugs is

According to SAMHSA, “alcohol and drug use

Researchers have noted that “adolescence is a

Recommendation 3: Use facts, not scare-tactics to educate youth.

Education is a key component of any plan to

Support for the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance

A key aspect of DARE's failure to be effective

Recommendation 5: Be responsible with the provision of anti-drug messages.

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