Pubdate: Wed, 13 Apr 2005
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Marsha Rosenbaum
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/bush.htm (Bush, George)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?155 (Drug Policy Alliance Staff)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/marsha+rosenbaum

BUSH GOES AT DRUG PROBLEM BACKWARD

Evidence Shows That Abstinence-Only Drug And Sex-Education Programs
Put Young People In Real Jeopardy

Marsha Rosenbaum, PhD, directs the Safety First drug education project at
the Drug Policy Alliance and is the author of "Safety First: A
Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education.''

Politics trumps science again as President George W. Bush proclaims
tomorrow National DARE Day.

Heaping praises on the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, Bush
says: "Across America, law enforcement officers, volunteers, parents
and teachers are helping to send the right message to our nation's
youth about illegal drugs and violence through the ... DARE program."

Yet, despite 22 years of drug-free pledges, T-shirts, bumper stickers
and plenty of abstinence-only rhetoric, the program does not seem to
be getting the "right message" across to the DARE generation, many of
whom are saying "maybe" or "sometimes" or even "yes" to alcohol and
other drugs.

As in years past, the 2004 Monitoring the Future survey of high school
students' use of alcohol and other drugs revealed that three-quarters
admitted to using alcohol prior to graduation, and half had tried
illegal drugs. Dismissal of "just say no" is so widespread that even
the Bush twins were caught imbibing before they were of legal drinking
age.

Perhaps teens are cynical about the simplistic "drugs are bad, don't
use them" messages they have received since early childhood. Or maybe
they don't find police officers, however well-meaning, a credible
source of information. Whatever the reasons, the "feel-good" DARE
program has proven to be little more than a feel-good placebo -for
everyone involved except students themselves.

Evaluations over the past decade have consistently found, as the
General Accounting Office noted after assessing the research, "DARE
had no statistically significant long-term effect on preventing youth
illicit drug use." Amid an ever-growing chorus of critics, the U.S.
surgeon general, the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of
Education and the American Federation of Teachers have deemed DARE
ineffective. And although DARE has tried to reinvent itself of late,
preliminary evaluations are no better than those of the original
program, still used in a majority of American school districts.

By officially praising DARE, Bush not only demonstrates a fundamental
disregard for research, but also contradicts his own education policy.
The No Child Left Behind Act recommends only programs approved by the
federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. DARE is glaringly
absent from that prized list of "evidence-based" drug education programs.

While the Bush administration continues to tout an ineffective
program, a growing number of big cities are refusing to go along. Most
notably, Los Angeles, birthplace of the program, all but eliminated
DARE last year. And after receiving a scathing report from its
Independent Budget Office, New York City abandoned DARE last year,
citing ineffectiveness as well as a savings of $2.5 million to the
city. Many places in New York State, including Long Island, still have
DARE programs.

Sacrificing sound programs in favor of doctrine, a palpable disservice
to teens, is also apparent with the parallel issue of sexuality
education. The House of Representatives' Committee on Government
Reform has been looking at federally funded, abstinence-only sex
education programs and found that such programs deliver distorted and
inaccurate information about contraception and sexually transmitted
diseases.

Just this month, authors of a joint Yale-Columbia University research
study reported on the impact of teenage virginity pledges pushed by
the "True Love Waits" movement. In the prestigious Journal of
Adolescent Health, sociologists Hannah Bruckner and Peter Bearman
revealed that the majority of pledgers ultimately had sex before
marriage. Pledgers were less likely to use condoms than their
nonpledging counterparts, and those who remained virgins were "more
likely to substitute oral and/or anal sex for vaginal sex."

We hear lots of rhetoric these days about family values and safety. As
the mother of four, I share other parents' concerns about the
worrisome issues of sex and drugs. Abstinence, of course, would be
ideal for teenagers. But, in the end, we have no choice but to accept
the reality that young people make their own decisions, and they are
not always consistent with our preferences.

When policy-makers advocate rigid, abstinence-only drug and sex
education programs of questionable value, to the exclusion of
safety-oriented approaches that dare to provide an honest,
comprehensive fallback strategy, they put our young people in real
jeopardy.

If sex and drug prevention programs prohibit the discussion of
practical information about how to take precautions if one is not
abstinent, they are neither education nor protection.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin