How effective are current drug education programs as a means of preventing illicit substance abuse in teenagers

Deposited with permission of the author. © 1999 Karen Lees-AmonWestern Governments have been obliged to tackle illicit substance abuse by focusing on health issues, this has resulted in preventative policies that direct drug education through schools. As a consequence there are hundreds of drug education programs and the majority are competing for funding under the same auspice. Victoria's response has been to develop a prevention program known as Get Real and phase it into Victorian schools over a three year period. The three year period ended in 1999 and due to a change of Government the Get Real program has been re-funded for another 12 months, this is despite the fact there have been no formal evaluations conducted about its success or otherwise. This program has been examined in relation to its own objectives and juxtaposed against two other main programs operating in schools in Australia. The results suggest Get Real is on the road to achieving its objectives which are to provide students with a realistic knowledge hasp about drugs and their effects. However, its broader goal which is to prevent illicit substance abuse cannot be evaluated because there are no studies that show its success or otherwise. Based on the hypothesis thill drug education programs prevent illicit substance abuse in teenagers, Get Real's curriculum was compared with other similar programs and the research done on these programs suggest drug education programs do not successfully prevent illicit substance abuse. The best Get Real and other programs can hope to achieve, is to provide realistic information and develop children's social skills and empower them with the knowledge and self esteem to make their own decisions. And to know that they alone are responsible for their choices and the consequences that follow from these choices