Perspectives on Preventing Student Drug Abuse. INSTITUTION University Research Corp., Bethesda, Md
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 314 851 CG 022 181 AUTHOR Pedone, Ronald, Ed.; Gwaltney, Margaret K., Ed. TITLE Perspectives on Preventing Student Drug Abuse. INSTITUTION University Research Corp., Bethesda, Md. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Researcr, and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC.; Cffice of Personnel Management, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 89 CONTRACT OPM-87-9040 NOTE 277p. PUB TYPE Collected Works - General (020) -- Viewpoints (120) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC12 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Drug Abuse; Elementary Secondary Education; *Prevention; *School Role; *Student Behavior ABSTRACT This set of papers is one part of the United States Department of Education's effort to establish a research agenda for drug use. It consists of a foreword and 10 papers that examine issues of drug abuse, students, and schools. It presents different views on the drug abuse problem in order to affect research on schools, drugs, and drug education. The foreword, "Rethinking Drug Abuse, Students, and Schools" (Leslie J. Silverman), discusses the timing and rationale of the Department of Education's project on new research perspectives on preventing student drug abuse, and highlights seven themes that emerge from the 10 papers. Although the papers are presented in their entirety, each is individually abstracted in a separate section to illustrate the basic researchable ideas of the authors. The papers are: (1) "Drug Abuse and Adolescence" (Joseph Adelson);(2) "Families, Adolescents, and Drugs: A Review and Interpretation of the Research Literature" (Allan C. Carlson); (3) "Drugs, Peer Groups, and School Communities" (Nathan Glazer); (4) "Reducing Drug Use in America: A Perspective, a Strategy, and Some Promising Approaches" (Lloyd D. Johnston);(5) "Historical Perspectives on Youth and Drugs" (Joseph F. Kett); (6) "The Legal System and School Efforts to Combat Drug Abuse" (Henry Lufler, Jr.); (7) "What We Can Learn From the First Opiate-Cocaine Epidemic" (David F. Musto); (8) "Schools and Drugs: Educational Partnership as a Remedy for the School Drug Problem" (David S. Seeley);(9) "Drugs and Children" (Benjamin J. Stein); and (10) "Competing with the Drug Curriculum in American Schools" (Jackson Toby). Biographical summaries of the authors are appended. (NB) **************************w******************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** PERSPECTIVES ON PREVENTING STUDENT DRUG ABUSE Edited By: Ronald Pedone, U. S. Department of Education Margaret K. Gwaltney, University Research Corporation U $ DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDEDUCATIONAL CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORTIONWA CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it CD Minor changes have been made to improve rN reproduction quality Points of vie* or opinions stated in this docu C\J ment do not necessarily represent official OE RI position or policy O CD Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education 1989 C r: BEST COPY AVAILABLE THE PAPERS PREPARED FOR THIS VOLUME WERE SUPPORTEDBY THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ANU IMPROVEMENT. THE VIEWS SCPESSEDWITHIN ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND ARE NOT NECESSARILY SHARED BY THE U. S. DEPARTMENTOF EDUCATION. THIS PUBUCATION WAS PRODUCED BY UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CORPORATION UNDERCONTRACT NO. 87-9040 WITH THE U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT. ,i, HAW, '-' !i.i CG PERSPECTIVES ON PREVENTING STUDENT DRUG ABUSE e PREFACE Drug abuse among American youth is the dominant problem today. Most rem. j (August 1989) the Gallup Poll found that for the first time in 54 years of polling, adult respondents identified drug abuse as the number one problem confronting the nation. This concern has more than doubled within the space of recent months. Also, an August 1989 Washington Past/ABC News poll found that four out of ten Americans now view drugs as the nation's most important problem. In a word, concern, frustration, and fear about drugs and drug abuse are at record levels with no immediate signs of abatement. Drug abuse increasingly confronts Americans in their own communities and schools, and rising public concern is fanned by the media's attention to the problem. Every major city newspaper reports daily on some aspect of the problem and its repercussions. Reports also highlight programs designed to remediate the problem, yet the impact of these programs falls short of our need. At best, such programs can boast only a partial rate of success. As an agency entrusted with developing the potential of American youthand by extension, the future of the NationThe Department of Education has an enormous stake in the war against drug abuse. Schools are major battlegrounds in this war, and the Department devotes considerable resources to study the problem and identify, develop, and evaluate drug-prevention programs and curriculums. In light of the limited success of existing programs, however, the Department is seek 4 new strategies based on more focused research. This set of papers is one part of the Department's effort to establish a research agenda for drug abuse. The authors, for the most part, are not research specialists in the field of substance abuse prevention; they represent a variety of scholarly and professional disciplines. The diversity of their interests brings a similar diversity of insight to bear upon the problem of drug abuse and suggests new avenues of research that may lead us to more innovative and effective solutions. The papers pinpoint many important aspects of the problem of student drug abuse. Some include the following: Increased drug use over the last two decades parallels the breakdown of the family. Since 1960, the divorce rate and the number of single parents have increased 140 percent. We need to learn more about the relationship between drug use and family structure. Is the drug epidemic destroying homes, or is the change in family structure creating an environment that promotes drug abuse? Parents need to be empowered more in their parental roles so that they are better equipped to deal with the problems of drug abuse. Faced with the enormity of the drug abuse problem, some parents give up, thinking the problem is beyond their influence or control. i ot- [ New models for cooperative parent groups should be developed, refined, and evaluated. Although schools cannot insist that p.u.ents form such groups, they might be able to provide creative mechanisms to get parents to organize themselves and can certainly play an active role in supporting these groups. Government at all levels directly and indirectly influences family lift --for example, through taxation, welfare policy, child support and child custody laws, and promotion of certain lifestyles. We need a better understanding of how these influences impact the family so that family stress and/or instability do not become causes of or contribute to drug abuse. A universal approach to fighting substance abuse is probably inappropriate; efforts that effectively combat alcohol abuse or cigarette smoking may not work against illicit drug abuse. We need to understand better the prevention and intervention strategies for different illegal or unhealthy substances and search for solutions that target particular forms of abuse. Youth often cite peer pressure as the reason they start to use drugs. Understanding how peer groups function as initiators and nurturers of drug abuse is essential if we are to make productive use of peer group influences. Students must be involved in the fight against drug abuse. We need to study peer-based and peer-run drug prevention programs to learn what works. Teachers and school administrators are not clear about how schools can intervene in drug problems or what legal rights schools and students have vis a vis school drug policies. We should disseminate materials to educate school officials about their legal latitude to address the drug problem. School personnel could benefit from knowing how the courts have dealt with school drug abuse cases. For example, what precedents have been set and what are the limits to school authority around this issue? Are there trends in school drug litigation? Structural change within the school system could influence efforts to reduce drug abuse. We need to investigate alternative models and evaluate the effect of such efforts as school volunteer programs, peer tutoring, and school- business partnerships on the drug problem. More than one Federal agency is concerned with the problems of drug abuse. Even within the Department of Education, the diverse prevention efforts are only loosely coordinated. We must pool our resources and work in concert to solve the drug problem. It will be particularly important to share the results of research and demonstration programs when they reach their dissemination phases. Drug abuse is not exclusively an educational issue, and the problems that schools face can benefit from complementary approaches in the community. The Alcohol, Drug, and "Nita' Health Administration and The Department of Education should wo. ic together to jointly fund demonstration programs in the schools and community. Not all these concerns are new. The authors suggest, however, that our approach to examining them has sometimes been incorrect. We must seek innovative solutions, not traditional ones. We must be aggressive, not tolerant.