The Effectiveness of Primary School Drug Education

TLDR: This article reviews the (mainly US) literature on the effectiveness of school-based educational interventions targeted at children below 11 years of age with the objective of preventing illicit drug use.

Abstract: Early use of drugs such as tobacco and alcohol is associated with later drug misuse and the age of initiation into drug use is falling in the UK and elsewhere. Arguably educational interventions must start in the primary school in order to maximize any preventive impact yet such education is underdeveloped and poorly researched. This article reviews the (mainly US) literature on the effectiveness of school-based educational interventions targeted at children below 11 years of age with the objective of preventing illicit drug use. Such evaluations are rare partly because they require a long timescale before impacts become measurable. The major (but still small-scale) British study to date suggested that a broad-based, life-skills programme could help prevent drug use. Other British studies have demonstrated the feasibility of implementing drug education in the primary school and some have recorded improvements in variables thought to relate to later drug use/problems. Outside the UK, studies of two popular...