TACKLING DRUG ABUSE IN OUR SOCIETY 
PREVENTION

Preventing or delaying use of psychoactive drugs, alcohol, and tobacco among adolescents is a critical, national public health goal. The simplest and most cost-effective way to lower the human and societal costs of drug abuse is to prevent it in the first place. More than 255 million Americans do not use illegal drugs. Some sixty-one million Americans who once used illegal drugs have now rejected them; many suffered as a result of drug abuse. Accidents, addiction, criminal involvement, damaged relationships, impaired judgement, and lost educational or employment opportunities were common. Of the fourteen million Americans who currently use illegal drugs, some four million are chronic abusers. Preventing America's sixty-eight million children from using drugs, alcohol, and tobacco will help safeguard our society. Preventing drug abuse is one of the best investments we can make in our country's future. Doing so is preferable to dealing with the consequences of drug abuse through law enforcement or drug treatment.
Prevention is most promising when it is directed at impressionable youngsters. Adolescents are most susceptible to the allure of illicit drugs. Delaying or preventing the first use of illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco is essential. Not only does hazardous drug use put young people at risk of negative short-term experiences, but those who do not use illegal drugs, alcohol, or tobacco during adolescence are less likely to develop a chemical-dependency problem. Like education in general, drug prevention is demonstrably most effective among the young. In addition to deterring some initiations completely, drug prevention programs help people who use drugs to use smaller quantities. Successful substance-abuse prevention leads to reductions in traffic fatalities, violence, unwanted pregnancy, child abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, injuries, cancer, heart disease, and lost productivity.
Evidence from controlled studies, national cross-site evaluations, and CSAP grantee evaluations demonstrates that prevention programs work. Good junior high school interventions affect knowledge and attitudes about drugs, use of cigarettes and marijuana, and persist into the twelfth grade. Examples of CSAP prevention successes are encouraging. A Cornell University study of six thousand students in New York state found that the odds of drinking, smoking, and using marijuana were 40 percent lower among students who participated in a school-based substance-abuse program in grades seven through nine than among their counterparts who did not. Similarly, an assessment of Project STAR found that forty-two participating schools in Kansas City, Missouri reported less student use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana than control sites.
Prevention programs are not vaccinations that inoculate children against substance abuse. Sadly, significant numbers of young people who participate in the best programs will go on to use drugs. The "no-use" message must be reinforced consistently by parents, teachers, clergy, coaches, mentors, and other care givers. The effectiveness of prevention is difficult to measure given the lag time from when a young person goes through a program and when he or she starts using drugs. MTF historical data, for example, demonstrates that marijuana use among adolescents tends to change in inverse proportion to the percentage of youths who disapprove of marijuana use or perceive such use to be risky. According to MTF data, drug-usage rates change two years after attitudes. Prevention affects the number of new and light users much more than it does the number or consumption patterns of heavy users. Finally, since rates of drug use seem to spread in a manner similar to an epidemic, prevention will be more effective when undertaken early in the cycle when use is proliferating with existing users introducing others to drugs. At this time, enabling one person to abstain can prevent other initiations. Rather than be reactive, prevention programs should be proactive and reach each rising cohort.

PARENTS ROLE TOWARDS DRUG ABUSE


While all parents are critical influencers of children, parents of children aged eight to twelve are especially influential. Children in this age group normally condemn drug use. Such attitudes and attendant behavior are easily reinforced by involved parents. Parents who wait to guide their children away from drugs until older ages when youngsters are more readily influenced by peers or may have started using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, decrease their ability to positively influence children.
Parental example is a determinant of adolescent drug use. Children whose parents abuse alcohol or other drugs face heightened risks of developing substance-abuse problems themselves. Every day, these youngsters receive conflicting and confusing messages about substance abuse. Nevertheless, specially crafted prevention messages can break through the levels of denial inherent in these families. SAMHSA's Children of Substance Abusing Parents program is developing community-based interventions services to reduce those risks.
Teachers, coaches, youth workers in all areas of life from faith communities to scouts, and extended family members also provide youth with important protection from drug abuse and support for positive parental training by modeling, teaching, and reinforcing positive behavior. Such "occasional preventionists" are vital in touching the lives of children from chemically dependent families. Adult addiction can have a devastating impact on children. By taking small steps, adult mentors can make a permanent difference in the course of a child's life.
SOURCE:DRUG CONTROL POLICY....