Drug Education in High School: Creative Writing Essay

Drug Education in High School
March 15, 2021
Drugs and drug abuse have been in existence for centuries and society has suffered a great deal of time due to the prejudicial implications of substance abuse. Drugs and drug abuse are not only a psychosocial menace but also have some severe health hazards, calling for a substantial effort to cut short the bad habit. Attempts of all sorts have been put forward to act as a preventive measure to drug and drug abuse among the young population, the DARE program and the Just Say No Campaign at the forefront. To some extent, these programs have borne some fruits, while others have come up with all sorts of accusations against the effectiveness of these programs, some of which are valid (Schultz, 2018). High school, with much of its population being teenagers, curious about trying many things, and having the ability to learn quickly, is the most suitable developmental stage to implement the drug prevention programs. The incorporation of drug education in the high school curriculum is of the essence in the fight against drugs and drug abuse among teens and young adults because it can enhance the previous prevention programs, can spread awareness on drugs and drug abuse, and can address the prevalence of drug abuse among teenagers.
Drug education in high school can enhance previous prevention programs. Some programs have been initiated in the past to prevent drug and drug abuse among children, some of which are still in effect to date. The introduction of drug education in high school will help complement these programs by introducing an additional alternative to the initial preventive measures. The Just Say No Campaign and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) programs of the 1980s were introduced in a bid to curb the widespread abuse of drugs, in particular, crack, a form of cocaine that is known to be highly addictive and was prevalent at the time (Pardo & Reuter, 2018). These two preventive measures focused more on educating young children, as young as elementary school kids, and have been lauded by many that they were subservient in ensuring a larger population of the country is void of drugs and drug abuse (Department of Justice, 2017). Attorney General Jeff Sessions' remarks regarding the D.A.R.E. program confirmed the significant inputs of the intervention: “I believe that DARE was instrumental to our success by educating children on the dangers of drug use” (Department of Justice, 2017, par. 9). While the D.A.R.E. program and the effects of the Just Say No Campaign is still in existence to date, an introduction of drug education in high the school will go a long way in boosting its effectiveness.
The Just Say No campaign faced some significant criticism. Critics came out with all manner of unfavorable judgments against the strategy, terming it a complete failure in the fight against drugs and that brought about polarization in the country by dehumanizing drug addicts (Schultz, 2018). Soon after the Just Say No Campaign, the D.A.R.E. program was initiated in 1983 (Schultz, 2018), spearheaded by the police departments and school districts. The program was also criticized and it failed due to the excessive use of exaggerations and scary remarks about drug and...