All anyone has to do is go to a party or club today, and it is almost guaranteed that there will be illicit drugs there. According to the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly, usage rates among teens for “drugs such as cocaine, crack, heroin, and LSD have remained stable (though some are at near decade-high levels” (“Partnership Survey”). On the other hand, the use of ecstasy doubled among teens since 1995 which brings it to the same levels as cocaine, crack, and LSD (“Partnership Survey”). Obviously the ongoing war against drugs in the United States pits well-meaning parents, schools, and agencies against many teens who don’t appreciate being approached with drug programs and advice like “Just Say No.”

For example, California is implementing a new program that provides nonviolent drug users with treatment rather than jail time (“Backers”). In fact, one survey showed 92% of respondents believed that incarceration is thought to be the least effective treatment for drug abusers (Fillipi). D.A.R.E. recently has begun college campus programs because they have found that peer pressure overestimates how much drugs or alcohol another college teen may use. The program’s “social-norms strategy is aimed at correcting that” (“D.A.R.E.”).

But the most change regarding teen drug offenses seems to be education. A recovering teen drug addict, Branden Mallory, suggests his reasons to promote education:

I think that in order to make an impact on children, we need to be more explicit. We need to show the children the true effects of drugs, instead of just saying that drugs are bad. When I was using, I never saw my own behavior and the horrible effects it had on my family and my non-drug abusing friends, who quickly abandoned me to my druggie ways. I couldn’t see how I would lie, steal, cheat, and use anger or rage to keep people – my parents, mostly – away from me; I eventually lost 35 pounds, lost high school, lost my family, lost my health, lost my self-respect.

Teen drug education, if Mallory gets his wish, would introduce the powerful problems of addictions. In Virginia, for example, “all too often a heroin addict is arrested and asks for help but there is none to give,” notes James Walton (66). Virginia’s law enforcement is now being geared to prevent “new addictions…among our youth” through education (68).

Note: this research paper is not complete. The above segment is an example of the typical practices of MLA. Please compare the research sample with the following Works Cited list created for it.

Works Cited

“Backers of California Treatment Initiative Promise More Efforts in Other

States.” Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly. 4 Dec. 2000: 19. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCOhost. Glendale Community College Library Media Center, Glendale, AZ. 2 Apr. 2001.

“D.A.R.E. to Revamp Program Approach, Focus on Social-Norms Strategy.”

Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly. 26 Feb.2001: 21. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCOhost. Glendale Community College Library Media Center, Glendale AZ. 23 Mar. 2001.

Fillipi, Karen. “Survey on Drug Abuse at G.C.C.” 13 Apr. 2001.

Mallory, Branden. “Personal Interview.” 22 May 2001.

“Partnership Survey: Teen Marijuana Use Down, Ecstasy Up.” Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly. 4 Dec. 2000: 10-12. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCOhost. Glendale Community College Library Media Center, Glendale, AZ. 2 Apr. 2001.

Walton, James. “Anti-Drug Efforts.” FDCH Congressional Testimony 14 Mar.

2001: 66-69.

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Last edited: 4/4/2006