Efforts in the area of drug education have been less than successful over the years. The time has come to step back and reevaluate and reassess what it is we are trying to accomplish. Emphases in the past have certainly been well intentioned, but a new direction needs to be charted for the future. Health Educators and other professionals have…

Discusses the emergence of a new type of abused drug, dextromethorphan, which is used in cough syrup. Presents the results of the first phase of a comprehensive investigation of this phenomenon in the Waynesboro, Pa. school district. Survey data indicate abuse of cough syrup has increased over the years and is increasingly perceived as a problem…

The varied aspects of drugs, their source, abuse, chemical composition, and physical, personal, and social effects are explored. Seven units cover the following areas: (1) an overview on drug use, a brief history of drugs and discussion of social implications; (2) the human nervous system and the actions of drugs; (3) "nondrug drugs" such as…

Popular theories of drug addiction are detailed and found wanting. Naturalistic studies of addicts in their own environments are reviewed in order to demonstrate that addicts do not fit these theories which are supposed to explain them. A plea is made to pay more attention to these ethnographic studies, if more effective and humane laws and social…

The U. S. Office of Education's National Drug Education Training Program, which began as a limited and terminal one-year effort is assessed. The basic purpose related structure of the information collection and analysis process made it possible to provide information that had multiple uses in management of the program. The fundamental question at…

The document presents a collection of articles about heroin. Article 1 provides general information on heroin identification, drug dependence, effects of abuse, cost, source of supply, and penalties for illegal heroin use. Article 2 gives statistical information on heroin-related deaths in the District of Columbia between 1971 and 1982. Article 3…

Drug dealers are often popularly stereotyped as "pushers" who actively engage in enticing young people into the drug habit, but there have been no scientific studies of their behavior or their attitudes on drug abuse or public health. In an attempt to gain information about behavior characteristics and communication patterns of middle…

A collection of articles about methaqualone (also known as quaalude or mequin) is presented. Article 1 discusses the increasing popularity of the depressant, methaqualone-produced psychophysiological effects, substitute drugs (valium, phenobarbitol, benadryl, and mandrax), overdose and addiction, and decreasing pharmaceutical production. Article 2…

The document presents a collection of articles about inhalant abuse. Article 1 presents findings on the psychophysiological effects related to the use of amyl or butyl nitrate as a "recreational drug." Article 2 suggests a strong association between chronic sniffing of the solvent toulene and irreversible brain damage. Article 3 warns…

The document presents a collection of articles about "lookalike drugs." Article 1 presents readers with a look at "peashooters" (lookalike drugs which are usually replicas of pharmaceutical amphetamines, but increasingly used to describe simulations of cocaine and prescription downers). Lookalikes, although usually legal, are…

The document presents a collection of articles about LSD. The first article discusses the increasingly popular use of blotter acid (tiny squares of absorbent paper soaked in liquid LSD). Article 2 furthers this look at the newer LSD formats and describes rumors of lick-'n-stick stamps and color-transfer tattoos as examples of techniques aimed at…

This fifth grade unit is one of a sequential learning series of the Focus on Inner City Social Studies (FICSS) project developed in accordance with the needs and problems of an urban society. A description of the project is provided in SO 008 271. This specific unit examines the personal and social problems of drug abuse. The use of drugs is…

The Social Issues Resources Series (SIRS) is a set of loose leaf units each of which is addressed to a different social issue. Each unit consists of articles which have been reproduced from newspapers, magazines, journals and government publications representing the prevailing spectrum of opinion, emphasis and complexity. Sixty articles are…

This publication attempts to produce greater understanding of the complex problems of drug abuse and drug dependence. The major emphasis for prevention is through helping children develop to a healthy maturity. Section One discusses various approaches to drug education (scare and fear, matter-of-fact, styles of use and motives, society and…