Taking Charge of Your Life
Problems addressed
Drug abuse
Alcohol abuse
Effectiveness

No Effect

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No Effect

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Life periods served
Teenagers (14 to 17 years)
Where the program was applied
Education establishment
Community (streets or community centers)
Country of application
United States
Description

This is a universal prevention program for eighth- and ninth-grade students. The intervention is carried out by police officers to reduce tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use by students in and around the school environment.
The program highlights the personal, social, and legal risks and consequences of consuming tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs. It provides data from national studies on substance use to dispel the concept and beliefs about substance use. Students are trained in life skills, such as communication, decision-making, assertiveness, and drug refusal skills. The consequences of drug abuse and good choices are reinforced.
The intervention lasts for 10 meetings held throughout the school year.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation showed a 3.8% increase in alcohol abuse and 4.1% increase in cigarette use among students who were not users at the start of the study, and especially among white male and female students. The program reduced cannabis use by 9.8% among students who were users at the start of the study, but with no impact on overall cannabis use [1].
The authors suggest that prevention programs should not be applied to the entire population, because they appear to have side effects on youth who are not alcohol and tobacco users. However, this program may have some benefits if it targets people who are already drug abusers [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Sloboda, Z., Stephens, R. C., Stephens, P. C., Grey, S. F., Teasdale, B., Hawthorne, R. D., Williams, J. & Marquette, J. F. (2009). The Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Study: A randomized field trial of a universal substance abuse prevention program. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 102(1-3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2009.01.01

Information source