If you are trying to implement an effective drug education program in your secondary school, you may want to review our talking points to help you make your case.

What are the Realities of Teen Drug Use?

• The use of alcohol and marijuana is common among high school students and most young people accept it as part of teenage social life.
  
  
• Drug prevention programs designed to inoculate children against later alcohol and other drug experimentation have failed.
  
  
• Drug education that ignores the views of young people is bound to fail.
  
  
• Severe punishment of those caught with alcohol and other drugs has not affected use rates among other high school students.

What is Reality-Based Drug Education?

• To promote abstinence among students, while acknowledging the reality that many young people will continue to experiment.
  
  
• To reduce the problematic use of alcohol and other drugs by counseling students who are harmed by their own substance use or that of family members.
  
  
• To prevent students from entering the schools-to-jails pipeline by using proven alternatives to suspensions and expulsions for alcohol and other drug infractions.

How Does the Beyond Zero Tolerance Approach Work?

• Beyond Zero Tolerance (BZT) focuses on training existing staff to implement the approach rather than paying for outside personnel and programs – a great cost-savings for secondary schools.
  
  
• BZT combines comprehensive, interactive, and honest drug education with identification of, and assistance for, students whose lives are disrupted by substance use.
  
  
• BZT replaces punitive measures with restorative practices, enabling offenders to acknowledge the harms they have caused, guide them in making amends, and be re-accepted into the school community.