Pubdate: Wed, 10 Apr 2002
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2002 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Mike Snyder
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

AUTHOR SAYS TEENS QUESTION 'JUST SAY NO' DRUG MESSAGE

Speaker Urges Alternatives in Education

American teen-agers are increasingly skeptical of drug education programs 
that focus solely on abstinence and fail to distinguish between marijuana 
and harder drugs, a drug policy reform advocate said Tuesday. Marsha 
Rosenbaum, a sociologist and author who heads the San Francisco office of 
the Drug Policy Alliance, spoke on the eve of a major drug policy 
conference starting today at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute 
for Public Policy.

Rosenbaum, who will lead a session at the conference, said drug education 
efforts should continue to encourage abstinence while offering alternatives 
to prevent young people who try drugs from sliding into abuse or addiction.

The prevailing "abstinence only" mentality inhibits discussion of other 
measures young people can take to lessen the risk of harm if they choose to 
experiment with drugs, Rosenbaum said. The current approach, she said, is 
unrealistic and dangerous.

"The prevention of drug experimentation in America today among teen-agers 
might be impossible," said Rosenbaum, noting that young people are prone to 
risky behavior and live in a culture in which they are bombarded daily with 
drug-related images and messages.

While schoolchildren in the 1990s received the most intense drug education 
in history, Rosenbaum said, surveys show that more than half experimented 
with drugs before they finished high school and 80 percent tried alcohol.

Rosenbaum said her suspicions about the value of the "Just Say No" approach 
to drug education began when she was interviewing addicts for her doctoral 
dissertation in the late 1970s.

A woman imprisoned for heroin use said she had been told in grade school 
that marijuana was a dangerous gateway to harder drugs. When she later met 
people who smoked marijuana without destroying their lives, she told 
Rosenbaum, she concluded the anti-drug message must have been inaccurate.

"So when heroin came along, I thought, 'Why not?' " the woman said, 
according to Rosenbaum.

The anti-drug message is further eroded, Rosenbaum said, by the 
distinctions between legal and illegal drugs.

Teen-agers "don't understand why a substance like marijuana is prohibited, 
while other, more poisonous substances like alcohol and tobacco are legal 
and advertised," she said.

Rosenbaum suggested that schools incorporate scientifically accurate 
information about the physical effects of drugs into appropriate classes.

She spoke at a luncheon organized by the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, a 
local nonprofit that advocates reform of drug education and enforcement 
policies.

The group's president, Jerry Epstein, said the Baker Institute conference 
will provide a valuable forum to "suggest more effective ways to limit the 
damage done by drug use and abuse."

Asa Hutchison, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 
is scheduled to speak today, providing an overview of current federal drug 
policy. Epstein said Hutchison "deserves credit for being the first major 
public official to be willing to defend current policy in such a venue."

Other experts will discuss legal, public health and educational aspects of 
the drug issue. Thursday's focus will be on approaches to drug education 
and enforcement in other countries.

Houston Mayor Lee Brown, who served as director of the U.S. Office of Drug 
Control Policy in the Clinton administration, also will speak Thursday.

While the conference is not generally open to the public, organizers said 
some seating may be available. Those interested should call 713-348-4683 to 
make arrangements.
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