Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

What we can--and cannot--expect from school-based drug prevention.

Jonathan P Caulkins1, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Susan Paddock

  • 1Carnegie Mellon University, H John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Santa monica, CA, USA. Caulkins@cmu.edu

Drug and Alcohol Review
|February 18, 2004
PubMed
Summary

School-based drug prevention programs in the U.S. offer significant social benefits, primarily from reduced tobacco and alcohol use, outweighing their costs. These public health initiatives are cost-effective, yielding substantial returns on investment.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Employment insecurity and binge drinking in the United States: Implications of unemployment insurance.

Preventive medicine·2026
Same author

A cross-national comparison of nonmedical and medical use of psychedelic drugs in the international cannabis policy study.

The International journal on drug policy·2026
Same author

Fentanyl Purity and Overdose Decline: A Reexamination of Geographic Trends.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences·2026
Same author

Recent minimum wage policies and their association with suicide and poisoning deaths.

American journal of epidemiology·2026
Same author

Adolescent Cannabis Use After Cannabis Legalization and the COVID-19 Pandemic.

JAMA network open·2026
Same author

Historical trends in self-reported US heroin initiation.

Addiction (Abingdon, England)·2026

Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Social Policy
  • Substance Abuse Prevention

Background:

  • School-based drug prevention is a key element of national drug control policies.
  • Evaluating the economic and social impact of these programs is crucial for policy decisions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantitatively assess the social benefits and economic costs of school-based drug prevention in the United States.
  • To analyze the contribution of reduced drug use (tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, marijuana) to overall program effectiveness.

Main Methods:

  • Social policy analysis framework.
  • Quantitative assessment of social benefits versus economic costs per participant.
  • Sensitivity analysis to evaluate parameter uncertainty.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Overall social benefits ($840/participant) significantly exceed program costs ($150/participant).
  • Reductions in tobacco and alcohol use drive the majority of program benefits.
  • Benefits from reduced cocaine use ($300/participant) exceed costs, but marijuana benefits ($20/participant) are minimal.

Conclusions:

  • School-based drug prevention is a cost-effective public health measure, with benefits largely derived from reducing legal substance use.
  • Findings suggest a need to re-evaluate funding and perception of these programs, emphasizing their public health role over solely illicit drug control.
  • Uncertainty exists regarding the long-term effects and the valuation of delayed initiation.