Drug education: an appraisal of a popular preventive

Drug education is a popular preventive. In this paper, school-based drug education programs as currently conceived and implemented are critically appraised. The evidence indicates that while such education influences knowledge and attitudes, it has little impact on behavior. It is contended that in most drug education programs the value and meaning of being a drug user is misunderstood and the benefits of drug use underestimated. It is argued that existing health promotion models have in the main failed to adopt a systemic approach to drug use and have focused too much attention on individual change at the expense of a broader social understanding of behavior. It is proposed that with regard to illicit drugs, future educational endeavors should take the form of training in "low(er) risk" drug use within a harm-reduction paradigm, and that with regard to alcohol, such strategies need to be augmented by social and legislative changes. It is concluded that if a harm-reduction and systemic approach is adopted, then education will lose some of its popularity, since such an endeavor will be a more challenging, politically difficult, and socially complex enterprise.