Response to a Journal Article on Drug Control Policy



Response to a Journal Article on Drug Control Policy

Introduction

This drug control policy article has been taken from the journal “Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publication”. The title of the article is “Prevention Resources". It got published in the 2008 and can be found in “Encyclopaedia of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, & Recovery”. The article describes the large-scale public anti-drug education, prevention, and communication campaigns undertaken in the United States in the last 30 years. Particular examples of campaigns are used and their purpose, approach, and effectiveness highlighted (such as the “Just Say No,” Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE; National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, or NYAMC; and Project ALERT campaigns).

The article discusses that in the recent years, we have seen an increase in the use of mass media to deliver health messages, including anti-smoking, anti-drug, and provacci-nation campaigns. In addition, news outlets have become more involved in disseminating information about health to the general public. The successful use of mass media has increased exposure to health-related messages among audiences who have not been reached in the past. The introduction of social networking tools (such as Facebook and Twitter) has offered an additional, and innovative, tool for dissemination of health messages, especially among youth (Saedi, 2008).

Discussion

The article portrays that one of the most broadly implemented anti-drug school programs and another initiative frequently associated with “Just Say No” was the DARE program. Launched in the early 1980s, DARE became one of the most widely used drug education curriculums of the 20th century. By 1986, the U.S. Congress had passed the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, which mandated that schools adopt a drug abuse prevention program; this facilitated broader dissemination of DARE, a well-funded and long-standing program in the United States even more than a decade ...