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Beyond Ideology in Drug Policy: The Primary Prevention Model

NCJ Number
140171
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: (Fall 1992) Pages: 959-976
Author(s)
D T Mason; M W Lusk; M Gintzler
Date Published
1992
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This critical analysis of drug prevention programming as a form of social intervention explores the ideological and normative bases of drug policy.
Abstract
To identify these bases for social intervention, researchers have developed six levels of analysis of a problem -- macro deficiencies, social service issues, individual empowerment, skills deficiencies, subcultural problems, and personal pathology -- and a continuum of five intervention strategy levels to overcome that problem -- social action, use of community resources, economic system adaptation, macro- environmental intervention, and individual counseling. Current U.S. anti-drug policies can be categorized either as supply reduction strategies or the criminal justice approach, or demand reduction strategies, known as the medical approach. More recently, the social influence (SI) approach to drug prevention has emerged, typified in programs including the Life Skills Training Program, Project Smart, and the Midwestern Prevention Project. The conceptual framework for the SI approach holds that drug use is an adaptive behavior that allows individuals to cope with interpersonal and intrapersonal problems. The SI framework for drug prevention strictly forbids all drug use and reinforces public perceptions that putting dealers in jail and teaching youth to "just say no" will solve the problem. These authors argue that the SI approach, which emphasizes teaching individuals the skills necessary to successfully resist pressures to use drugs is simplistic and insufficient. Instead, the ideological framework of primary prevention needs to be expanded to make micro-environments and structure the objects of intervention. 64 references

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