MANDATORY DRUG EDUCATION WEEK IN THE UNITED STATES--
WHY SCHOOLS MUST PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN YOUTH DRUG EDUCATION
As the primary social institution for most developing children, schools can have a significant impact on adolescent health behavior and can play an essential role in adolescent health promotion. Schools serve all children regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or health insurance status; thus, they are a logical place to provide coordinated health education and health services to a nation's children (DHHS, 1991, p. 434). A successful drug education program requires intense, interactive skills training to provide students with the long-term ability to resist using drugs. A mandatory drug education week with curriculum-specified follow-up throughout the school year is the only effective means of educating students fully on the consequences of drug use and the skills necessary to avoid such consequences successfully.
The federal government has long declared its commitment to addressing the issue of youth drug use. Since 1986, the government has awarded over $4 billion to states for implementing school-based drug- and violence-prevention programs (Joyner, 1997, p. 1). The distribution of these funds was authorized first by the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act and afterward by its successor, the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994 (Joyner, 1997, p. 1).
Unfortunately, however, the level of youth drug use in the United States has increased during the 1990s. In 1998, a University of Michigan study for the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that although there had been a slight decline in teen drug use in 1997, youth drug use had climbed significantly in the previous six years (Bomann, 1999, p. 1B). Between 1991 and 1997, eighth-graders who tried drugs jumped from 19 to 29 percent; 10th-graders from 31 to 50 percent and 12th graders from 44 to 54 percent (Bomann, 1999, p. 1B...