Date: Thursday, Sept. 19, 1996
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mona Brown, Sheryl Massaro (301)443-6245

Effective Drug Abuse Prevention Programs Released at National Conference of Researchers and Practitioners

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today issued a challenge to schools, families, and communities to implement drug abuse prevention methods proven to be effective through research.

Secretary Shalala was joined at the national drug abuse prevention conference "Putting Research to Work for the Community," sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), by General Barry McCaffrey, Director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy; and Dr. Alan I. Leshner, Director of NIDA, to outline key factors that make prevention programs effective and what it takes to implement them.

Speaking to the more than 400 community leaders, educators, researchers, parents and policy makers, Secretary Shalala said, "Research presented at this conference shows that strong, comprehensive prevention efforts do make a difference in protecting young people from drugs. It is critical that we send our young people clear and consistent messages that drugs are illegal, dangerous and wrong. By reaching young people early and often with this life-saving message -- and by providing them with real opportunities to achieve and to lead -- we can stop drug use before it begins. Families, schools and communities have a clear charge before them to take up these tools and help build drug-free environments."

Secretary Shalala announced a collaborative effort between HHS and Scholastic Magazine to distribute innovative new substance abuse prevention materials to 73,800 3rd through 6th grade teachers. The materials will reach about 2.3 million students and families. The theme of the effort is "Don't Harm Yourself, Arm Yourself With Knowledge About Drugs."

General McCaffrey said, "Understanding addiction is essential to preventing it. NIDA-supported research provides us with the much needed evidence to answer the question 'Does prevention work?' with a resounding, 'Yes!'"

Key prevention research is being highlighted throughout the two-day conference. Findings include:

- Community-wide prevention programs show significant promise in reducing adolescents' use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Components typically include mass media, homework sessions with parents, communications training for parents, and training for community leaders.

- School-based programs, when conducted with middle school students, and reinforced with subsequent booster sessions, can produce lower levels of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use by teenagers over a sustained period of time. Such programs typically combine training in the skills and knowledge to resist social pressure to use drugs with information about the risks and prevalence of drug abuse and reinforcement of social norms against drug abuse. Researchers concluded that such an effective school-based drug prevention program for teens should begin by junior high school and include at least two years of booster sessions.

- Family-based prevention programs that train parents in behavioral skills to reduce conduct problems in children, improve parent/child relations, and monitor children's activities during early adolescence clearly reduce the prevalence of risk behaviors among young people.

"Twenty years of NIDA-funded research have now given us powerful tools and guidelines about how to prevent drug use. Now we need to work with the community to put these tools to use," said Dr. Leshner.

The conference format includes five key research presentations, a session of work groups based on these presentations, and a special community panel session during which local leaders who have implemented science-based prevention programs in their communities will discuss their efforts and their ongoing results.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse, a component of the National Institutes of Health, is the primary federal agency responsible for basic, clinical, and applied research designed to improve and develop new strategies to deal with the health problems and issues associated with drug abuse and addiction.