“Beer then liquor, never sicker… Liquor then beer, never fear.” This was a common refrain when I was a Gen X teenager. Besides “Don’t drink and drive,” this was the extent of how I was taught to drink responsibly. Like most kids, most of my knowledge about alcohol and drugs didn’t come from my parents or my school’s alcohol and drug education programs.
Now I am a clinical psychologist, professor of psychology, and mother to three young kids who have a genetic vulnerability to addiction. I’ve spent the past 20 years studying addiction and providing evidence-based addiction treatment. I’ve helped thousands of people better understand the risk and protective factors that influence why one person develops addiction when another doesn’t. I’ve heard countless “If only I had...” stories from parents, students, and people in addiction recovery.
Each semester that I taught college courses on addiction, I was dismayed by students' lack of basic knowledge about what psychoactive substances actually do in their brains and bodies. They shared their personal experiences with “alcohol/drug education” programs they encountered in their school settings, and these accounts typically share a common refrain—these “prevention” initiatives become jokes, trigger rebellious substance use, or have little to no impact on their substance use decisions.
At worst, prevention programs create shame for people struggling with their substance use and actually impede help-seeking by........