Drug Abuse Prevention Programs

These numbers reveal that teenagers face an apparent exposure to drugs, and have little trouble getting a hold of some if desired. This article concludes that drug use and its consequences are not stressed enough in the current high school curriculum. The statistics prove that more needs to be done to identify and educate students at risk for drug use.

Children, starting as early as elementary school, are being educated on substance abuse. As of 2013, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, D.A.R.E., administers a school-based substance abuse, gang, and violence prevention program in 75 percent of the United States school districts. Since 1983, 70,000 police officers have taught the D.A.R.E. program to approximately 114 million elementary through high school students in the United States alone ("Is the D.A.R.E. Program Good for America's Kids K-12?"). This program is aimed at preventing drug use in elementary, middle, and high school students. A needle-exchange program implicitly encourages the exact opposite message, condoning immoral and illicit behavior. Governments should focus on discouraging drug use, providing more productive treatment for recovery, and punishing drug users instead of supplying the materials to continue their addiction. Young children have the potential to take more risks and must receive a clear message on drugs, which should coincide with the no tolerance policy they are being taught in school with implementation of the D.A.R.E. program. A needle-exchange program is more of a hopeful harm reduction campaign that sends the wrong message to young children and society as a whole. If there is to be a positive change in America regarding intravenous drug use, then the government and school programs all need to be on the same page; we

Drugs create a problem for people everywhere. “It’s important not to downplay teenage drinking or drug abuse.” Let your teen know how you feel about drugs and alcohol. The world needs more effective drug programs, Now how do we create a good drug prevention program that works for all types of people? Many people struggle with drug use and it is sad to watch them go through it. Programs around the country and the world are trying to figure out what technique is the most effective for drug users. Many people who have a drug problem have been abusing drugs since they were younger. That can make it harder for them to stop using drugs because they have used it for so long and their bodies have become tolerant to the drug.

The use and abuse of non-prescription drugs has been a problem in America since colonial times. Historically, the reaction to this problem has been the enforcement of prohibition laws and providing total abstinence education. This has resulted in big business in America; according to the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy, the federal government spent $19.2 billion dollars in 2003 on the war on drugs (1). Unfortunately, the abstinence based education and prohibition laws that are incorporated in the war on drugs have been wholly ineffective in slowing the demand for illicit drugs, and have had the opposite effects of driving up demand, street value, and drug-related crimes. The U.S. war on drugs bases its success on a

One may be astonished to discover that in 2012 “..about 17 percent of American high school students were drinking, smoking or using drugs during the school day” and this number has remained relatively stagnant throughout the years (Kuczynski-Brown). The amount of students who take part in the illegal acts of drinking, smoking, and drug use has been difficult to combat. Students do not understand that these substances can result in harmful consequences down the road. This is why it is imperative that, as a society, we begin looking for solutions to defeat these harmful habits, and sometimes, addictions. The earlier we begin to inculcate the effects of these substances on the young, the better. That is why the prime-time to spread this message

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program known as D.A.R.E has become a very widespread and popular program throughout the United States. The program appeals to all ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic lines, which is a large part of the reason why the DARE program has grown exponentially. The program’s basic premise was meant to introduce kids to the danger of drugs, before the drugs got to them. The implementation of the DARE program appeared to be what America needed to begin to put a dent in the war on drugs.

Executive Summary America’s most popular anti-drug program D.A.R.E. has created an uproar. The D.A.R.E. program had many issues the main one being its ineffectiveness. How could the most widely used drug prevention program in the United States be deemed ineffective? What went wrong? “The prevention of drug abuse is an especially salient topic for school psychologists and other educational professionals. Schools are the primary setting for providing education and information aimed at the prevention of drug abuse. Previous meta-analyses” (Ennett, et al., 1994; West & O 'Neal, 2004) indicate that one of the nation 's most popular drug prevention programs, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (D.A.R.E.), was not effective in reducing illicit drug use among youths. Current evaluations have produced an array of evidence showing the effectiveness of the new D.A.R.E. curriculum. Future studies must be conducted to determine if this new curriculum is effective. This analysis will show how this once prosperous program has proven to be so ineffective the D.A.R.E. program ranges from $1 billion to more than $2 billion annually. Despite questions about whether DARE works, it appears the cost will go up by millions even as the program is retooled. the following analysis would include a meta-analysis on why the program was so ineffective what could have been done.

The DARE program was first conceived twenty years ago by the Los Angeles Police Department and has since been adopted by almost eighty percent of schools nationwide. It places uniformed offices in the schools to teach of the dangers of drugs and alcohol,however throughout the course of numerous studies it’s effectiveness has been called into question. For example in numerous studies it has been shown that the graduates of the program are not less likely to use drugs and alcohol then the student that had no experience with the program.However despite of its ineffectiveness it can’t be replaced due to the fact that any suggestion to replace

The cost of this program runs an estimated 1 billion dollars a year, and the amount is going to grow by adding other topics to the program. The program is a loose structure, there are no local managers, a combination of funding sources and no central administration — makes it difficult to hold any single entity accountable and evaluate whether DARE is worth the money (Johnathan Riskind, 2002). There was a study that showed that the program has some immediate positive effects on students' knowledge of drugs, attitudes about drug use, social skills, and attitudes toward the police, but the effects dissipate within one to two years of students' participation in the program (Judith Lohman, 2010). The study also showed that the program's effect on drug use is either small or unidentifiable and, when identified, dissipates quickly. With all this being said the program is not worth the money and does not

Proponents believe that dare improves decision-making and attitudes towards drug use. In a 2002 study from the University of Akron, graduates were 6% higher in drug knowledge than those who never participated in the DARE program. [Now although these studies show a decline in drug use after undergoing the DARE program, the number of schools who have previously partnered with DARE have significantly decreased]

program and the effect it has had on its members. The article points out that most critics on the Empirical Evidence regarding the Effects of the drug abuse resistance education program. Schools are the primary setting for providing education and information aimed at the prevention of drug abuse. While the author mentions the six different studies done around the issues of the effectiveness of the D.A.R.E. program. The author of this article stresses the age factor over the D.A.R.E. participants ranging from 11-15. Previous meta-analyses indicate that one of the nation’s most popular drug prevention programs, was not effective in reducing illicit drug use among youths. In 2003, D.A.R.E. was modified in an attempt to make it more effective. How was it modified and

Among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, 9.8 % are estimated to be current users of illicit drugs, with 4.9 % using drugs other than marijuana. Nearly three quarters of students have started to drink alcohol and nearly half (47%) have tried using an illicit drug (not including alcohol or tobacco) by the senior year of high school.” (Hassan, Harris, Sherritt, Van Hook, & Brooks, 2009)

The connection between adolescent and substance abuse delinquency is many youth tend to be involved in this behavior substance abuse and delinquency leads to family and school problems. According to the Monitoring the Future study (previously called the High School Senior Survey), which indicate the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs by the Nation's youth since 1975, drug use among 12th graders peaked in 1981, with more than 65 percent of seniors having reported past use of an illicit drug. This figure dropped to a low of 40.7 percent by 1992. In 1993, however, this downward trend began to reverse. By 1996, 50.8 percent of high school seniors reported having used illicit drugs (Monitoring the Future Study,

Drug use is an increasing problem among teenagers in today's high schools. Most drug use begins in the teenage years, these years are the most crucial in the maturing process. During these years adolescents are faced with the difficult tasks of discovering their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles, assenting independence, learning to cope with authority figures and searching for goals that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily available, adolescents are curious and venerable, and there is peer pressure to experiment, and there is a temptation to escape from conflicts. The use of drugs by teenagers is the result of a combination of factors such as peer pressure, curiosity, and

It has been discovered that most people who struggle with drug addiction began experimenting with drugs in their teens. Teenage drug abuse is one of the largest problems in society today and the problem grows and larger every year. Drugs are a pervasive force in our culture today. To expect kids not to be influenced by the culture of their time is as unrealistic as believing in the tooth fairy (Bauman 140). Teens may feel pressured by their friends to try drugs, they may have easy access to drugs, they may use drugs to rebel against their family or society, or they may take an illegal drug because they are curious about it or the pleasure that it gives them.