What's Wrong With Drug Education?

To combat the growing use of drugs among youth, most U.S. school systems have adopted drug-education programs that make extensive use of documentary films. Now a stinging review of these films makes plain one reason the programs seem to be having little effect. After a $60,000 study, the Washington-based National Coordinating Council on Drug Abuse Education and Information revealed that the films are so eager to scare kids away from drugs that they undermine the credibility of their messages. Too often the films distort what is scientifically known about drugs and ignore the many uncertainties.

Of 78 films and teaching aids widely used in drug-education courses, the council found that 36 were "scientifically unacceptable"--including four of those distributed by the Pentagon and the armed services. Even those rated acceptable contained many inaccuracies. In one of the most popular films. Narcotics: Pit of Despair, for example, the commentary refers to a "pot-needle" (although pot is not injected), thereby inappropriately linking marijuana with heroin. LSD: Insight or Insanity is criticized for asserting flatly that LSD causes chromosome damage and birth defects when, in fact, the possible genetic effects of LSD are still debatable.

In The People Next Door, LSD and STP users are said to require "a controlled environment indefinitely" following their initiation, a situation that develops only rarely. A 1970 Defense Department film. The People vs. Pot, melodramatically refers to a marijuana-produced "killer instinct"--a reaction the report calls "atypical" (see following story).

In some ways, the report itself is unrealistic and nitpicking, objecting to such legitimate phrases as "some doctors believe" and "many LSD users lose all contact with reality." Some doctors do believe that LSD causes genetic damage and that marijuana may have some still undiscovered, long-range effects; they have not yet been proved wrong. Many LSD users have had bad trips and recurring psychotic episodes.

No Single Effect. The problem, according to Psychologist Helen Nowlis, one of the three scientists who screened the films for factual accuracy, is that their emphasis on extreme reactions to drugs "just doesn't correspond with the experience the kids are having. It's like trying to teach a two-year-old that radiators burn in the middle of the summertime. It's a crazy imbalance to stress marijuana hallucinations when 99% of the kids who try a marijuana cigarette don't get hallucinations, and it may do serious harm. A lot of heroin users say, 'You lied to us about pot--so we didn't believe you about heroin.' "

Helen Nowlis, 57, a University of Rochester counselor and ombudsman, has become increasingly well known as a spokeswoman for those who feel that the nation is underestimating the complexity of the drug problem. As chairman of the U.S. Office of Education advisory panel on drug education, she has spent the past year crisscrossing the country to sell her point of view to state agencies, school systems and colleges. Her philosophy began to take shape twenty years ago, when she participated in one of the first comprehensive studies of the social, emotional and physical results of drugs, and concluded that "there is no single effect for any drug. If you let me choose the person and the dose, I could produce any effect you name with any drug." Since then, she has lobbied astutely behind the scenes to make researchers, government officials and teachers focus on "people, not chemicals."

Moreover, she argues, "any program where total abstinence is the goal is doomed to failure." By way of analogy, she says, "Eighty million people use alcohol, and only 8%-10% of them abuse it and become problem drinkers or alcoholics. Only about 10% of marijuana smokers are more than occasional users. We should concentrate on why some people go from use to abuse, what the danger signals are and how to get help. We need to teach kids from the time they learn to talk that they need to respect drugs, that all drugs have risks, and that the human body is not just a car that can be given Bardahl when something goes wrong."

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