Just Say KnowDevon Tackels President, Students for Sensible Drug Policy at VCU

"Just Say No!"- we have all heard it many times throughout our lives, but has it been ef-fective in deterring the use or misuse of drugs? The answer, ironically enough, is no. Nu-merous studies have shown that D.A.R.E. education simply does not work, and has no long-term effect for drug-abuse prevention. In fact, programs like D.A.R.E. have been found to be detrimental to prevention efforts in many communities nationwide. The real-ity is that abstinence only education is a political fallacy that leaves students in the dark about the truth behind drug use, abuse, and addiction.

So, where do we go from here? It is time to go back to the drawing board and create a new strategy for teaching young people the truth behind mind-altering substances. We need to create an educational program for students that is backed by medical science, hard data, and doesn't rely on fear mongering or vicious propaganda. This is the problem that many young people face when they encounter drugs after finishing abstinence only drug education. Perhaps the worst part of it all, is the damage it does to the credibility of our educators and our parents alike. It does not take a young person long to realize that marijuana is not in the same league as heroin or cocaine, as our federal illicit drug sched-uling would suggest. They soon realize that marijuana does not cause illness or addiction. They may even find themselves asking "if they were wrong about marijuana, maybe they were wrong about everything else?".

The reality is that a "drug-free America" does not and will not ever exist. It is a battle that cannot be won, the war on drugs has failed the youth on every level. It relies on heavily punitive, racist, and ignorant policies that simply haven't been effective. Our government needs to take a new perspective on fighting the America's real drug problem; Addiction. We have turned our back on millions who have become addicted to illicit and legal drugs alike, and we need to bring this back into focus. Policy makers need to adopt harm-reduc-tion education and policies that actually have long-term positive effects on curbing drug use. It is time that America woke up to the reality that the drug war was over before it be-gan.