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«LS2»The purpose of this research is to examine drug-education programs with a view toward identifying the scope and limit of effectiveness of such programs. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context in which drug-education efforts have been undertaken, and then to discuss the utility of such efforts, with reference to specific educational materials.
The statistics on drug abuse in the U.S. and around the world must be disheartening to anyone who believes that there is a connection between drug use and the deterioration or destruction of the quality of life. "Overview of Drug Education and Prevention Programs," published between 1989 and 1992, states that although drug abuse appeared to have peaked in the late 1970s, that "cocaine use has actually risen since 1978 from 5.7 percent of high school seniors nationwide to 6.7 percent in 1985" (Overview, n.d., p. 1), and that an important part of the statistical increase can be attributed to drug use by high-school-age students. "Overview" says that drug use is a cyclical phenomenon, a fact confirmed by Holden's (1989) survey of American cocaine epidemics since 1900. The trend of increased and more intense drug use by young people that persisted through the 1980s appears to have continued into the 1990s. Indeed, in late 1992, the Parents Resource Institute for Drug education reported that despite claims by President Bush in debates with presidential candidate Bill Clinton that drug use had declined from 1989 to 1992, the reverse was true, particularly among students of junior high school age (Isikoff, 1992). Former students of one Washington, D.C., junior high school were jailed for selling drugs to current students and recruiting students as dealers and couriers for hard drugs, including cocaine and LSD (Brown & O'Harrow, 1991). Nor has drug use especially declined from 1992 to 1994, as reports regarding i...