Drug Education Effectiveness

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The Effectiveness of Drug Education Programs Drug education has been implemented in our society to educate people about the effects of narcotics. During my research I propose the argument that drug education programs are ineffective in educating people about the positive and negative effects that could occur from using narcotics. Parents and children should not be limited on information about narcotics. Youths serving youths in drug education programs provides information on past and current drug education programs that some prove to be highly effective programs while others have no substantial improvement for drug abuse. Factors that involve home life, quality of living, and interpersonal connections proves that specific drug education techniques…show more content…
Many drug education programs lack in the education about positive and negative effects about the substance. The shock-scare technique and the just say no technique used in the past proved ineffective in preventing drug use. One of the most popular drug education programs that was established in 1983 and has been adopted in over 70 percent of schools in the country is the D.A.R.E program. No significant changes in youth drug use have changed from the result of the D.A.R.E program and “Unfortunately, many youths are using drugs; 61 percent of students in U.S high schools say drugs are used, kept, or sold in their schools” (Taylor, 13). These statistics prove that new techniques should be implemented to prevent drug use. It is suggested in Youths Serving Youths in Drug education Programs that the failure of many drug education programs is resulted from lack of parental guidance and unconcerned educators. If parents do not communicate with their children about their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and peer relationships children are more susceptible to peer pressure which is a factor that weighs heavily on…show more content…
Drug education programs should be about educating the facts about psychoactive substances and understand that extreme situations that have occurred due to drug use can still be educated. The D.A.R.E program pushes the concept of just say no and role playing activities that assist children in gaining confidence and pride about themselves. The D.A.R.E programs do not educate children about the harmful effects of specific narcotics and the harmful effects that come with it. Teaching concepts of resistance and saying no to children prove ineffective because of the peer pressure and social stigma involved in school groups. I argue that programs like D.A.R.E should no longer be a part of our school systems and because of the large increase of drug production and use over the past several decades, drug education should be a mandatory subject that starts at home and continues in the class rooms from teachers. Drug education programs that teach hard facts about the positive and negative effects of psychoactive substance would seem uninteresting to children and could
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