Drug Education Gets a Bad Report Card

Some years ago California had a $1.6 billion program asking children to "just say no to drugs and alcohol" which failed, because most kids didn't believe the message or the ways it was delivered.

This was from a report issued, but you won't find many educators who know about it.

The California State Department of Education is not publishing that study.

The report, "In Their Own Voices: Students and Educators Evaluate California School-Based Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco, Education (DATE) Programs," was concluded by Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, reviewing data from more than 5,000 students.

Here is what researchers found:

* Many students do not view the rationale for a "no-use" message as credible because of their own personal observations and experiences.
* More than 40 percent of the students said drug education and services had no effect on their own substance use.
* Seven out of 10 students said they felt neutral or negative towards their drug educators.
* School-based policies intended to help "at-risk" students fail because troublesome students are driven out of the school system.

"This data suggests we need to change our view of today's children," says Dr. Joel Brown, principle author of the study. "Otherwise, we won't be able to truly reach students who do not use substances at all, or who might experiment with substances. But most importantly, if we do not change our views of today's children, we won't be able to reach kids most at risk for substance abuse."

Now I would like to introduce you to a recent survey done of our new (soon to be released) Ecstasy The Real Story video - Part 1.

Some showings of our newest video were done by Bobby Wiggins in Hawaii recently. The results are staggering to say the least.

As you read some of these results keep in mind that the students only viewed a rough cut of Part 1. (This is a 2-part video program.)

There were 128 students in a high school who watched the video. They were 9th and 10th graders. Here is a sample of the results:

Regarding what they thought of the talk:

*88.3% said it was "fun, not boring, interesting, helpful and informative."

Regarding learning things they did not know before:

*39.9% learned "How cleverly Ecstasy/drugs are advertised, promoted and how to spot this"
*22.6% "How drug dealers sucker you in, their thinking was valuable to understand."

When asked if their thoughts changed:

*63.7% said "yes." They were more strongly against use and it reinforced their decision.
*25.8% said "yes, and not to believe drug promotion and dealers' strategies."

When asked how they can use this information:

*64.1% said "to help friends/family stop or not start, warn them not to get hurt."
*23.4% said "for myself - to resist promotion from the media."

When you compare these results to the results of the $1.6 billion dollar program asking children to "just say no" above, what type of report card do you think Friends of Narconon gets?

So what does this tell us? Our Ecstasy - The Real Story video is smoking hot!

We are getting closer to its completion. We have just uncovered two very important Ecstasy death stories that we hadn't been able to get the documentation for until now. It took months of work, and now we have them and will be using them in the video!

I will not give you any more details than that. However, if you are one of our dedicated donors, i.e., "Producers" (you know who you are), you can call me and I will fill you in.

These stories will blow your mind.

This puts us into the next and final phase of filming.

If you want to become a Producer and find out, or if you would like to know how to get your free copy of the video set (there are two 1/2 hour programs), then call Donna Miller at Friends of Narconon (1-800-882-6862) right away.

Think about it, with results like these, how can you not want to help with this game?

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Robert Hernandez CCDC*
President

*Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor

Copyright © 2005 Friends of Narconon, Intl. All Rights Reserved. Narconon, the Narconon logo, and the Narconon "Jumping Man" logo are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.