Youngsters have a hard time accepting anti-drug messages delivered by police, teachers and others at school, California-based research suggests.
The study, published in the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis last week, says most children decide on their own whether to use drugs.The study adds to research already critical of programs such as D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, that have received billions of dollars in federal help.
Last month, the Education Department released a study showing the failure of most programs to halt the rise in drug use. Still, the department says workable programs can be developed and wants to spend $620 million next year on drug education, up from $558 million this year and $438 million in 1996.
The U.S. Education Department had no immediate comment on the latest study.
The research dealt with a California program called Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Education, or DATE, that California officials say was abandoned in 1994. But the article said that DATE resembled programs being used across the nation.
"Given the similarity of many U.S. drug education programs, student rejection of DATE programs is significant," the article said.
The study suggests a basic problem in programs that use fear and rewards such as T-shirts to get children to shun alcohol, illegal drugs and tobacco, said lead researcher Joel H. Brown.
Brown said a key problem is the absolute, "no-substance-use" message of federally approved anti-drug programs, when adults can legally use substances like alcohol and tobacco that are banned for children.
Children "resolve that people are either lying to them or not providing them with the whole picture," Brown said by telephone from Berkeley, where he runs Educational Research Consultants, a private firm.
Jane Henderson, a deputy superintendent with the California Department of Education, said the department has made program changes based on the research, much of which has been published in various forms.
Brown's study relied on random surveys and on in-depth interviews conducted in 1993. Some 5,000 students, grades 7-12, were surveyed. Of those students, 43 percent said they were "not at all" affected by drug classes and activities. Only 15 percent said drug decisions were affected "a lot" or "completely."
Nearly 59 percent said they made their substance use decisions "a lot" or "completely" on their own.
Students said they want factual information about the drug experience. They want to hear from drug users and abusers.