The Irrelevance of Evidence in the Development of School-Based Drug Prevention Policy, 1986-1996

D.M. Gorman
Additional contact information
D.M. Gorman: Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey

Evaluation Review, 1998, vol. 22, issue 1, 118-146

Abstract: This article examines developments in school-based drug prevention policy and programming since the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Using data from national surveys and evaluations of school-based programs, it argues, first, that there was really no need for a massive infusion of money into school-based drug prevention in the late 1980s, and, second, that there was little or no evidence to indicate that a "new generation" of effective programs, based on the so-called social influence model, was emerging at this time. Despite the infusion ofresources into school- based prevention efforts, adolescent drug use has risen in recent years. Moreover, evaluations continue to show that the effectiveness of social influence programs is very much in the eye of the beholder. Fundamental questions need to be asked of school-based drug prevention—just as they should be asked of other key components of our current drug control policy .

Date: 1998
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X9802200106 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:evarev:v:22:y:1998:i:1:p:118-146

DOI: 10.1177/0193841X9802200106

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Evaluation Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().