Drug Education

Almost a month into the new fiscal year, the Palmdale City Council adopted its 1994-95 budget after voting to replace sheriff's deputies with civilians in key anti-crime programs. The vote, at Tuesday night's meeting, ended weeks of debate concerning the merits of using sheriff's deputies to teach children about drug abuse and to oversee crime prevention programs such as Neighborhood Watch.

School-based anti-drug programs such as DARE and Red Ribbon Week are largely ineffective in preventing students from using alcohol, drugs and tobacco, according to a comprehensive study commissioned by the California Department of Education.

How can you tell if a co-worker might have a substance abuse problem, and what should you do about it? Here are tips from experts: Watch for signs: According to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, indications that an employee might have a substance abuse problem include work absences without notification, frequent disappearances from the work site, work performance that alternates between high and low productivity, and progressive deterioration...

Europe has a drug problem, and knows it. But the Europeans' approach to it is quite different from the American "war on drugs." I spend 120 days a year in Europe as a travel writer, so I decided to see for myself how it's working. I talked with locals, researched European drug policies and even visited a smoky marijuana "coffee shop" in Amsterdam. I got a close look at the alternative to a war on drugs. Europeans are well aware of the U.S. track record against illegal drug use.

First Lady Nancy Reagan will travel to Atlanta Thursday to attend the annual conference of PRIDE, the Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education, the White House announced today.

First Lady Nancy Reagan and William E. Simon, former Treasury secretary, will join National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle, National Basketball Assn. Commissioner David Stern and baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth in a national high school drug education and prevention program. Stern made the official announcement of the program Thursday morning on NBC's Today show.

Capistrano Unified School District trustees have unanimously approved sending a pilot drug education guide to about 4,000 parents of seventh- and eighth-grade students. The 20-page Parent Resource, Information, Drug Education guide, known as PRIDE, is designed to help parents detect the signs of substance abuse and offers facts on chemical dependency and how it is treated.

The next network simulcast isn't going to be a presidential press conference or a space shot. It's not going to bring news about an earthquake or coverage of an invasion. And it's not going to be in prime time. The next network simulcast is going to be a cartoon. On Saturday at 9:30 a.m. (PDT), ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox will simultaneously air "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue," an animated half-hour program about drug abuse.

The chairman and ranking Republican member of the House narcotics committee criticized Education Secretary William J. Bennett for not emphasizing the drug abuse issue in his proposal for a model high school curriculum. Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), the chairman, said in a statement that Bennett "buried the drug issue, which students themselves say is the biggest problem facing young people today."