and donate materials and services for programs that help teenagers stay away from drugs. The mass media provide messages that shape and reinforce people's beliefs and attitudes about alcohol and other drugs. The media play an important role in prevention because they reach millions of people. Radio and television stations can cover prevention news stories, interview prevention experts to inform the community about effective prevention approaches, and broadcast public service messages to promote prevention. As you can see there are a lot of things you can do to prevent drug abuse. I think that the only way to stop drug abuse is to seek out prevention. Trends in Youth Drug Use The most alarming trend is the increasing use of illegal drugs, tobacco, and alcohol among youth. Children who use these substances increase the chance of acquiring life-long dependency problems. They also incur greater health risks. Every day, three thousand children begin smoking cigarettes regularly; as a result, a third of these youngsters will have their lives shortened.12 According to a study conducted by Columbia University’s Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, children who smoke marijuana are eighty-five times more likely to use cocaine than peers who never tried marijuana.13 The use of illicit drugs among eighth graders is up 150 percent over the past five years.14 While alarmingly high, the prevalence of drug use among today’s young people has not returned to near-epidemic levels of the late 1970s. The most important challenge for drug policy is to reverse these dangerous trends. Early drug use often leads to other forms of unhealthy, unproductive behavior. Illegal drugs are associated with premature sexual activity (with attendant risks of unwanted pregnancy and exposure to sexually-transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS), delinquency, and involvement in the criminal justice system. Overall Use of Illegal Drugs. In 1995, 10.9 percent of all y...
