cannabisnews.com: Modest Results From School Drug-Prevention Program





Modest Results From School Drug-Prevention Program
Posted by FoM on May 26, 1999 at 07:17:06 PT
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune
Although the best school-based drug-prevention programs are worth the cost, they produce only modest results and are hardly a "silver bullet" in the government's war on drugs, a new Rand Corp. study concludes. 
The study, which focused on cocaine use, estimates that the best of the anti-drug efforts will curtail a student's use of the substance by an average of 8 percent over his or her lifetime -- a result that, dollar for dollar, compares favorably with government efforts to shrink demand by destroying cocoa leaves overseas or by patrolling the border.   But the 194-page report released Tuesday by the Santa Monica, Calif.-based policy think tank cautions against expecting too much from prevention programs, the full effects of which, it says, can take up to 40 years to kick in.   "The bad news for prevention enthusiasts is that prevention does not appear to be the hoped-for silver bullet," the study concludes. "It is not likely that with current technology prevention can play a decisive role in eradicating our current drug problem."   The report, titled An Ounce of Prevention, A Pound of Uncertainty, comes as government officials at all levels increasingly emphasize school-based prevention programs as part of the $40 billion war on drugs.   It's been an uphill battle. After hitting a trough in the early 1990s, drug use among students is rising, federal figures show. The number of 12th-graders using cocaine has nearly doubled, from 1.3 percent in 1992 to 2.4 percent in 1998.   The federal government has tried to stem the tide by funding many anti-drug education programs in schools, but recent scientific research shows that many aren't effective, the study says.   However, it focuses on two programs considered to work -- Project ALERT and Life Skills -- both of which teach seventh- through ninth-graders the social skills to resist peer pressure.   The programs have reduced the use of marijuana, which implies an impact on cocaine consumption as well. Cocaine use typically starts after high school and leads to more deaths, arrests and lost worker time than other drugs.   The study also attempts to establish, for the first time, a cost-benefit ratio that compares the prevention programs -- at $67.12 a student -- with other government enforcement efforts to curtail cocaine use. 
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