Part 1

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_What Works_

_SCHOOLS WITHOUT DRUGS_

United States Department of Education William J. Bennett, Secretary 1986

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

August 4, 1986

Drug and alcohol abuse touches all Americans in one form or another, but it is our children who are most vulnerable to its influence. As parents and teachers, we need to educate ourselves about the dangers of drugs so that we can then teach our children. And we must go further still by convincing them that drugs are morally wrong.

Now, as more and more individuals and groups are speaking out, young people are finding it easier to _say no_ to drugs. Encouraged by a growing public outcry and their own strength of conviction, students are forming peer support groups in opposition to drug use. It has been encouraging to see how willingly young people take healthy attitudes and ideas to heart when they are exposed to an environment that fosters those values.

Outside the home, the school is the most influential environment for our children. This means that schools must protect children from the presence of drugs, and nurture values that help them reject drugs.

_Schools Without Drugs_ provides the kind of practical knowledge parents, educators, students and communities can use to keep their schools drug-free. Only if our schools are free from drugs can we protect our children and insure that they can get on with the enterprise of learning.

_INTRODUCTION_

"_It is a sad and sobering reality that trying drugs is no longer the exception among high school students. It is the norm._"

--California Attorney General John Van De Kemp _Los Angeles Times_, April 30, 1986

_When 13- to 18-year-olds were asked to name the biggest problems facing young people today, drugs led their list. The proportion of teens with this perception has risen steadily in recent years. No other issue approaches this level of concern._

_Four out of five teens believe current laws against both the sale and the use of drugs (including marijuana) are not strict enough._

--The Gallup Youth Surveys, 1985 and 1986

"_Policy is useless without action! Drugs do not have to be tolerated on our school campuses. Policy to that effect is almost universally on the books. Drugs remain on campus because consistent, equitable and committed enforcement is lacking._"

--Bill Rudolph, Principal, Northside High School, Atlanta, Georgia

Testimony submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Special Investigations, July 1984

"... _We have a right to be protected from drugs._"

--Cicely Senior, a seventh-grader, McFarland Junior High, Washington, D.C.

William J. Bennett

Secretary of Education

The foremost responsibility of any society is to nurture and protect its children. In America today, the most serious threat to the health and well-being of our children is drug use.

For the past year and a half, I have had the privilege of teaching our children in the classrooms of this country. I have met some outstanding teachers and administrators and many wonderful children. I have taken time during these visits to discuss the problem of drug use with educators and with police officers working in drug enforcement across the country. Their experience confirms the information reported in major national studies: drug use by children is at alarming levels. Use of some of the most harmful drugs is increasing. Even more troubling is the fact that children are using drugs at younger ages. Students today identify drugs as a major problem among their schoolmates as early as the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.

Drug use impairs memory, alertness, and achievement. Drugs erode the capacity of students to perform in school, to think and act responsibly. The consequences of using drugs can last a lifetime. The student who cannot read at age 8 can, with effort, be taught at 9. But when a student clouds his mind with drugs, he may become a lifelong casualty. Research tells us that students who use marijuana regularly are twice as likely as their classmates to average D's and F's, and we know that drop-outs are twice as likely to be frequent drug users as graduates.

In addition, drug use disrupts the entire school. When drug use and drug dealing are rampant--when many students often do not show up for class and teachers cannot control them when they do--education throughout the school suffers.

Drug use is found among students in the city and country, among the rich, the poor, and the middle class. Many schools have yet to implement effective drug enforcement measures. In some schools, drug deals at lunch are common. In others, intruders regularly enter the building to sell drugs to students. Even schools with strict drug policies on paper do not always enforce them effectively.

_Schools Without Drugs_ provides a practical synthesis of the most reliable and significant findings available on drug use by school-age youth. It tells how extensive drug use is and how dangerous it is. It tells how drug use starts, how it progresses, and how it can be identified. _Most important, it tells how it can be stopped._ It recommends strategies--and describes particular communities--that have succeeded in beating drugs. It concludes with a list of resources and organizations that parents, students, and educators can turn to for help.

This book is designed to be used by parents, teachers, principals, religious and community leaders, and all other adults--and students--who want to know what works in drug use prevention. It emphasizes concrete and practical information. An earlier book, a summary of research findings on teaching and learning called _What Works_, has already proved useful to parents, teachers, and administrators. I hope this book will be as useful to the American people.

This book focuses on preventing drug use. It should be emphasized that the term drug use, as contained in the recommendations in the book, includes the use of alcohol by children. Alcohol is an illegal drug for minors and should be treated as such. This book does not discuss techniques for treating drug users. Treatment usually requires professional help; treatment services are included in the resources section at the end of the book. But the purpose of the book is to help prevent drug use in the first place.

The information in this book is based on the research of drug prevention experts, and on interviews with parent organizations and school officials working in drug prevention in all 50 States and the District of Columbia. Although this volume is a product of the U.S. Department of Education, I am grateful for the assistance the Department received from groups and individuals across the country. It was not possible to include all the information we gathered, but I wish to thank the many groups that offered their help.

No one can be a good citizen alone, as Plato tells us. No one is going to solve our drug problem alone, either. But when parents, schools, and communities pull together, drugs can be stopped. Drugs have been beaten in schools like Northside High School in Atlanta, profiled in this book. Preventing drug experimentation is the key. It requires drug education starting in the first grades of elementary school. It requires clear policies against drug use and consistent enforcement of those policies. And it requires the cooperation of school boards, principals, teachers, law enforcement personnel, parents, and students.

_Schools are uniquely situated to be part of the solution to student drug use._ Children spend much of their time in school. Furthermore, schools, along with families and religious institutions, are major influences in transmitting ideals and standards of right and wrong. Thus, although the problems of drug use extend far beyond the schools, it is critical that our offensive on drugs center in the schools.

My purpose in releasing this handbook, therefore, is to help all of us--parents and children, teachers and principals, legislators and taxpayers--work more effectively in combating drug use. Knowing the dangers of drugs is not enough. Each of us must also act to prevent the sale and use of drugs. We must work to see that drug use is not tolerated in our homes, in our schools, or in our communities. Because of drugs, children are failing, suffering, and dying. We have to get tough, and we have to do it now.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

A Plan for Achieving Schools Without Drugs

PARENTS:

1. Teach standards of right and wrong, and demonstrate these standards through personal example.

2. Help children to resist peer pressure to use drugs by supervising their activities, knowing who their friends are, and talking with them about their interests and problems.

3. Be knowledgeable about drugs and signs of drug use. When symptoms are observed, respond promptly.

SCHOOLS:

4. Determine the extent and character of drug use and establish a means of monitoring that use regularly.

5. Establish clear and specific rules regarding drug use that include strong corrective actions.

6. Enforce established policies against drug use fairly and consistently. Implement security measures to eliminate drugs on school premises and at school functions.

7. Implement a comprehensive drug prevention curriculum for kindergarten through grade 12, teaching that drug use is wrong and harmful and supporting and strengthening resistance to drugs.

8. Reach out to the community for support and assistance in making the school's antidrug policy and program work. Develop collaborative arrangements in which school personnel, parents, school boards, law enforcement officers, treatment organizations, and private groups can work together to provide necessary resources.

STUDENTS:

9. Learn about the effects of drug use, the reasons why drugs are harmful, and ways to resist pressures to try drugs.

10. Use an understanding of the danger posed by drugs to help other students avoid them. Encourage other students to resist drugs, persuade those using drugs to seek help, and report those selling drugs to parents and the school principal.

COMMUNITIES:

11. Help schools fight drugs by providing them with the expertise and financial resources of community groups and agencies.

12. Involve local law enforcement agencies in all aspects of drug prevention: assessment, enforcement, and education. The police and courts should have well-established and mutually supportive relationships with the schools.

CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION iv

WHAT CAN WE DO? vii

CHILDREN AND DRUGS 1

Extent of Drug Use 5 _Fact Sheet: Drugs and Dependence_ 6 How Drug Use Develops 7 _Fact Sheet: Cocaine: Crack_ 8 Effects of Drug Use 9 Drug Use and Learning 10

A PLAN FOR ACTION 11

What Parents Can Do Instilling Responsibility 13 Supervision 15 _Fact Sheet: Signs of Drug Use_ 16 Recognizing Drug Use 17

What Schools Can Do Assessing the Problem 19 Setting Policy 21 Enforcing Policy 23 _Fact Sheet: Legal Questions on Search and Seizure_ 24 _Fact Sheet: Legal Questions on Suspension and Expulsion_ 25 _Fact Sheet: Tips for Selecting Drug Prevention Materials_ 26 Teaching About Drug Prevention 27 Enlisting the Community 29

What Students Can Do Learning the Facts 31 Helping Fight Drug Use 33

What Communities Can Do Providing Support 37 Tough Law Enforcement 39

CONCLUSION 40

SPECIAL SECTIONS

Teaching About Drug Prevention 44

How the Law Can Help 49

Resources 59 Specific Drugs and Their Effects 59 Sources of Information 67 References 74

Acknowledgments 78

Ordering Information

"_I felt depressed and hurt all the time. I hated myself for the way I hurt my parents and treated them so cruelly, and for the way I treated others. I hated myself the most, though, for the way I treated myself. I would take drugs until I overdosed, and fell further and further in school and work and relationships with others. I just didn't care anymore whether I lived or died. I stopped going to school altogether.... I felt constantly depressed and began having thoughts of suicide, which scared me a lot! I didn't know where to turn...._"

--"Stewart," a high school student

_CHILDREN AND DRUGS_

Children and Drugs

Americans have consistently identified drug use among the top problems confronting the Nation's schools. Yet many do not recognize the degree to which their own children, their own schools, and their own communities are at risk.

Research shows that drug use among children is 10 times more prevalent than parents suspect. In addition, many students know that their parents do not recognize the extent of drug use, and this leads them to believe that they can use drugs with impunity.

School administrators and teachers often are unaware that their students are using and selling drugs, frequently on school property. School officials who are aware of the situation in their schools admit, as has Ralph Egers, superintendent of schools in South Portland, Maine, that "We'd like to think that our kids don't have this problem, but the brightest kid from the best family in the community could have the problem."

The facts are:

. Drug use is not confined to certain population groups or to certain economic levels in our society; it affects our entire Nation.

. Drugs are a serious problem not only in high schools, but now in middle and elementary schools as well.

. All illegal drugs are dangerous; there is no such thing as safe or responsible use of illegal drugs.

. Although drug trafficking is controlled by adults, the immediate source of drugs for most students is other students.

Continuing misconceptions about the drug problem stand in the way of corrective action. The following section outlines the nature and extent of the problem and summarizes the latest research on the effects of drugs on students and schools.

Extent of Drug Use

Drug use is widespread among American schoolchildren. The United States has the highest rate of teenage drug use of any industrialized nation. The drug problem in this country is 10 times greater than in Japan, for example. Sixty-one percent of high school seniors have used drugs. Marijuana use remains at an unacceptably high level; 41 percent of 1985 seniors reported using it in the last year, and 26 percent said they had used it at least once in the previous month. Thirteen percent of seniors indicated that they had used cocaine in the past year. This is the highest level ever observed, more than twice the proportion in 1975.

Many students purchase and use drugs at school. A recent study of teenagers contacting a cocaine hotline revealed that 57 percent of the respondents bought most of their drugs at school. Among 1985 high school seniors, one-third of the marijuana users reported that they had smoked marijuana at school. Of the seniors who used amphetamines during the past year, two-thirds reported having taken them at school.

The drug problem affects all types of students. All regions and all types of communities show high levels of drug use. Forty-three percent of 1985 high school seniors in nonmetropolitan areas reported illicit drug use in the previous year, while the rate for seniors in large metropolitan areas was 50 percent. Although higher proportions of males are involved in illicit drug use, especially heavy drug use, the gap between the sexes is lessening. The extent to which high school seniors reported having used marijuana is about the same for blacks and whites; for other types of drugs reported, use is slightly higher among whites.

Initial drug use occurs at an increasingly early age. The percentage of students using drugs by the sixth grade has tripled over the last decade. In the early 1960's, marijuana use was virtually nonexistent among 13-year-olds, but now about one in six 13-year-olds has used marijuana.

Fact Sheet

Drugs and Dependence

Drugs cause physical and emotional dependence. Users may develop an overwhelming craving for specific drugs, and their bodies may respond to the presence of drugs in ways that lead to increased drug use.

. Regular users of drugs develop _tolerance_, a need to take larger doses to get the same initial effect. They may respond by combining drugs--frequently with devastating results. Many teenage drug users calling a national cocaine hotline report that they take other drugs just to counteract the unpleasant effects of cocaine.

. Certain drugs, such as opiates and barbiturates, create _physical dependence_. With prolonged use, these drugs become part of the body chemistry. When a regular user stops taking the drug, the body experiences the physiological trauma known as _withdrawal_.

. _Psychological dependence_ occurs when drug taking becomes the center of the user's life. Among children, psychological dependence erodes school performance and can destroy ties to family, friendships, outside interests, values, and goals. The child goes from taking drugs to feel good, to taking them to keep from feeling bad. Over time, drug use itself heightens the bad feelings and can leave the user suicidal. _More than half of all adolescent suicides are drug-related._

. _Drugs and their harmful side effects can remain in the body long after use has stopped._ The extent to which a drug is retained in the body depends on the drug's chemical composition, that is, whether or not it is fat-soluble. Fat-soluble drugs such as marijuana, phencyclidine (PCP), and lysergic acid (LSD) seek out and settle in the fatty tissues. As a result, they build up in the fatty parts of the body such as the brain. Such accumulations of drugs and their slow release over time may cause delayed effects (flashbacks) weeks and even months after drug use has stopped.

How Drug Use Develops

Social influences play a key role in making drug use attractive to children.

The first temptations to use drugs may come in social situations in the form of pressures to "act grown up" and "have a good time" by smoking cigarettes or using alcohol or marijuana.

A 1983 _Weekly Reader_ survey found that television and movies had the greatest influence on fourth graders in making drugs and alcohol seem attractive; other children had the second greatest influence. From the fifth grade on, peers played an increasingly important role, while television and movies consistently had the second greatest influence.

The survey offers insights into _why_ students take drugs. For all children, the most important reason for taking marijuana is to "fit in with others." "To feel older" is the second main reason for children in grades four and five, and "to have a good time" for those in grades six to twelve. This finding reinforces the need for prevention programs beginning in the early grades--programs that focus on teaching children to resist peer pressure and on making worthwhile and enjoyable drug-free activities available to them.

Students who turn to more potent drugs usually do so after first using cigarettes and alcohol, and then marijuana. Initial attempts may not produce a "high"; however, students who continue to use drugs learn that drugs can alter their thoughts and feelings. _The greater a student's involvement with marijuana, the more likely it is the student will begin to use other drugs in conjunction with marijuana._

Drug use frequently progresses in stages--from occasional use, to regular use, to multiple drug use, and ultimately to total dependency. With each successive stage, drug use intensifies, becomes more varied, and results in increasingly debilitating effects.

But this progression is not inevitable. Drug use can be stopped at any stage. However, the more involved children are with drugs, the more difficult it is for them to stop. _The best way to fight drug use is to begin prevention efforts before children start using drugs._ Prevention efforts that focus on young children are the most effective means to fight drug use.

Fact Sheet

Cocaine: Crack

Cocaine use is the fastest growing drug problem in America. Most alarming is the recent availability of cocaine in a cheap but potent form called crack or rock. Crack is a purified form of cocaine that is smoked.

. _Crack is inexpensive to try._ Crack is available for as little as $10. As a result, the drug is affordable to many new users, including high school and even elementary school students.

. _Crack is easy to use._ It is sold in pieces resembling small white gravel or soap chips and is sometimes pressed into small pellets. Crack can be smoked in a pipe or put into a cigarette. Because the visible effects disappear within minutes after smoking, it can be used at almost any time during the day.

. _Crack is extremely addictive._ Crack is far more addictive than heroin or barbiturates. Because crack is smoked, it is quickly absorbed into the blood stream. It produces a feeling of extreme euphoria, peaking within seconds. The desire to repeat this sensation can cause addiction within a few days.

. _Crack leads to crime and severe psychological disorders._ Many youths, once addicted, have turned to stealing, prostitution, and drug dealing in order to support their habit. Continued use can produce violent behavior and psychotic states similar to schizophrenia.

. _Crack is deadly._ Cocaine in any form can cause cardiac arrest and death by interrupting the brain's control over the heart and respiratory system.

Effects of Drug Use

The drugs students are taking today are more potent, more dangerous, and more addictive than ever.

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the effects of drugs. Drugs threaten normal development in a number of ways:

. Drugs can interfere with memory, sensation, and perception. They distort experiences and cause a loss of self-control that can lead users to harm themselves and others.