Prop 5:  California Has a Chance to Treat Young People Struggling with Drug Problems the Right Way
AlterNet, [10-29-08]
Safety First's Director Emeritus Marsha Rosenbaum urges California voters to support an initiative that would invest $65 million annually into developing drug treatment programs for at-risk California youth under 18.

Support Alternatives to Zero Tolerance
[09-12-08]
The Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act would enable schools to use Title I funds to implement just and proven programs, such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, to replace counterproductive, zero-tolerance discipline policies in our schools. The Safety First Project signed onto a letter of support for this federal legislation.

Students Mobilize Against Random Drug Testing
[09-12-08]
Join us in raising awareness among high school and college students and providing more young people with the tools to take a stand for their rights. Last month we launched a new Facebook cause to oppose invasive and ineffective random student drug testing programs.

Let's Talk About Meth
[09-12-08]
Just4Teens: Let's Talk about Meth and Other Drugs is a video by and for youth, shaped by more than 70 teen focus groups participants as well as the young people on screen. The Safety First Project is proud to announce the availability of this innovative tool for teachers, counselors, prevention specialists, and parents to initiate a discussion with young people about drugs and drug use

Whether It's Sex or Drugs, Abstinence Simply Does Not Work
AlterNet, [09-11-08]
Safety First's Director Emeritus Marsha Rosenbaum and Youth Policy Manager Jennifer Kern examine the failures of abstinence-only education for the issues of sex and drug use in a new op-ed.

7 Reasons Parents Should Not Test Kids for Drug Use
U.S. News & World Report [08-06-08]
Addiction professionals warn parents about the dangerous potential unintended consequences of random drug testing. The Manlove family in Indiana recounts the tragic loss of their son, who switched to more dangerous drugs to avoid a positive test result.

States' Testing Programs Finding Few Offenders
USA Today [07-24-08]
Low positive-test rates and budgetary concerns are dimming states' interest in testing high school athletes for steroids almost as quickly as it began.

Drug Laws Fertilize Teen Voice
Dallas Morning News [07-18-08]
Joy Strickland, founder of Mothers Against Teen Violence, argues that fighting for rational and effective national drug policy is as essential to prevent violence in our communities.

Strip-Searched Girl Wins Appeal
Los Angeles Times [07-12-08]
A federal appeals court ruled that an assist principle violated an eighth grade student’s constitutional rights when he ordered that she be strip-searched for drugs based on an unverified tip.

Scared Straight? Or Just Plain Scared?
San Diego Union Tribune [6-27-08]
Safety First’s Jennifer Kern examines a San Diego high school’s ruse aimed at teaching a lesson about the consequences of drunk driving. Scare tactics just don't work.

Should You Drink With Your Kids?
Time [6-30-08]
John Cloud explores our failed efforts to stamp out underage alcohol that have created a culture in which young people binge in secret. There is a better way.

School Uses Fake Drunk Driving Tragedy to Scare Students
AlterNet [6-19-08]
Safety First’s Jennifer Kern examines a San Diego high school’s ruse aimed at teaching a lesson about the consequences of drunk driving. Scare tactics just don't work.

Random Student Drug Testing Ineffective, Invasion of Privacy
Ashbury Park Press [6-11-08]
Brendan Benedict, a senior at Allentown High School in New Jersey, joined with his peers to form a group, Students Morally Against Random Testing (SMART), to mobilize opposition to student drug testing.  The Safety First Project has been working to support the efforts of this inspiring student group.  

Random Student Drug Testing is Not the Answer
The Huffington Post [5-7-08]
Safety First’s Jennifer Kern urges educators to do their own research on random student drug testing. 

Psst…Hey Kid – Want Some M&Ms?
The Huffington Post [3-28-08]
Tony Newman, Media Relations Director at the Drug Policy Alliance, reflects on the dangers of taking a zero tolerance approach and banning sweets from schools. 

School Drug Tests Dismissed
Sydney Morning Herald [3-26-08]
The Australian National Council on Drugs said there is insufficient evidence to show drug testing at the nation's schools would have any benefits. The year-long study concluded testing Australian schoolchildren for drugs would waste more than $350 million a year and unnecessarily set students against teachers.

Victory in Washington State Student Drug Testing Case
Drug Policy Alliance [3-14-08]
The Washington State Supreme Court unanimously held that the Wahkiakum School District’s student drug testing policy targeting student athletes is unconstitutional and violates students’ rights under the Washington State Constitution. The Drug Policy Alliance was joined by the Washington Education Association in contributing to this important decision by filing a friend-of-the court brief with the court. 

State High Court Nixes Wahkiakum Drug Tests
The Daily News [3-14-08]
The Washington State Supreme Court unanimously rejected the Wahkiakum School District's policy of random drug-testing student athletes, saying it violates personal freedoms protected by the Washington Constitution.

Nixon-Era Program on Teen Drug Use Going Strong
The Associated Press [3-31-08]
Lloyd Johnston deserves praise for his significant contributions as the lead researcher for the federal government’s survey of trends in student drug use and attitudes about drugs for the past thirty-three years. He should also be commended for his research that compared 94,000 students in almost 900 American schools with and without a drug testing program and found virtually no difference in illegal drug use. 

Drug Test or Trust: There's a Lot at Stake
San Diego Union Tribune [3-1-2008]
This San Diego Union-Tribune editorial features two parents arguing for and against the use of home drug testing kits.

Random Drug Testing: The Trusted Secrets
Seattle-Post Intelligencer [1-26-2008]
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial board published an indictment of random student drug testing, arguing that “parents and legal guardians, not the feds, ought to be the ones who decide if their children ought to submit to such intrusions, period.”

Drug Testing Students Counterproductive
Seattle-Post Intelligencer [1-15-2008]
The day before the Washington State Student Drug Testing summit, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published an op-ed by Jennifer Kern, coordinator of DPA’s Drug Testing Fails our Youth Campaign. Kern pointed out that "student drug testing programs are invasive, unproven, expensive and, perhaps most important, potentially counterproductive."

Updating Drug, Alcohol, Sex Education in School
Newsday [1-6-2008]
New Jersey high school senior Alexa Bennett- Rosman wrote an op-ed published in New York Newsday arguing that DARE’s lessons are outdated and need to be revamped.

Limiting Teenage Drinking, or Trying
New York Times [12-30-2007]
New York Times columnist Michael Winerip tackles one of the hardest challenges that parents face: how to address the issue of drinking to teenagers. He asks the question, “How do you teach a teenager moderation?”

The Role of Schools in Combating Illicit Substance Abuse
Pediatrics [12-2007]
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement reaffirming their opposition to student drug testing in the December 2007 issue of the journal Pediatrics. The statement holds, “Physicians should not support drug testing in schools … [because] it has not yet been established that drug testing does not cause harm.”

In Need of a Plan B to Deter Young Athletes From Drug Use
New York Times [10-18-2007]
New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden reports on a study released in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health that challenges the deeply held, or at least hopeful, notion that high school drug testing is a deterrent.

Just Say No to Random Student Drug Testing
The Detroit News [9-25-07]
Jennifer Kern argues that while the simplicity of the theory behind student drug testing can be appealing, this unproven policy actually runs counter to well-established principles of how educators and parents can best promote healthy choices among adolescents, particularly those most "at risk." 

"Dear Mom"
Drug Policy Alliance [11-2006]
Eight years ago the San Francisco Chronicle asked Marsha Rosenbaum, DPA director of the Safety First Project, to write a letter about drugs to her son Johnny, who was then entering high school. That letter has now been translated into at least a dozen languages, adopted by the million-member California State PTA, and provided talking points for parents all over the world. Now, as Johnny graduates from college, he has responded to his mother's admonitions in the following letter.

Scared Straight? Or Just Scared? Do elementary school anti-drug campaigns work?
Brain, Child Magazine [06/2007]
Juliette Guilbert takes a critical look at elementary school anti-drug campaigns in a thought-provoking article that features Marsha Rosenbaum of the Safety First Project.

Will Drug Testing of Student Athletes Prevent Drug Abuse? Debate Featuring Marsha Rosenbaum
Justice Talking [8-21-2006]
This Justice Talking segment features Marsha Rosenbaum responding to the question, “Is drug testing the best way to prevent substance abuse?”

Few Adolescents Get Treatment; Options Lacking
Join Together Online [8-16-06]
A lack of tailored treatment means that less than 10 percent of adolescents who need addiction treatment get help, and continuing care is even more lacking, the Peoria Journal-Star reported on Aug. 5, 2005. Partly as a result of the lack of follow-up care, 80 percent of teens who do get treatment relapse within a year, researchers say.

One Soccer Mom's Take on the Drug War
Denver Post [6-28-2006]
Mother Jessica Peck Corry, reflects, “I hope my daughter will never smoke marijuana. Regardless of whether she does one day, I know one thing for sure: Keeping it illegal can only harm her future. Since 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has spent more than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars on twin advertising campaigns seeking to discourage marijuana use. The first speaks to parents, calling them the ‘Anti-Drug.’ It fails before it begins. Good parents are going to talk to their children about drugs. All the feel-good ads in the world aren't going to get indifferent parents to engage in such an awkward but essential dialogue.”

Student Drug Testing Opponents Get Message Out in San Diego
Drug Policy Alliance [2-23-2006]
The Office of National Drug Control Policy was greeted by a strong opposition voice when it brought its random student drug testing promotional tour to San Diego Wednesday. Several opponents of random student drug testing raised important questions and distributed materials at the ONDCP summit, and DPA hit the airwaves and the pages of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Student Drug Testing is No "Silver Bullet"
San Diego Union Tribune [2-22-2006]
A San Diego Union Tribune article written by Marsha Rosenbaum of the Drug Policy Alliance about the inefficient and invasive nature of student drug testing.

Test Results: More Questions Than Answers
Drug Policy Alliance [2-15-2006]
Random student drug testing negatively impacts parents and young people in a variety of ways. This is San Diego mother Gretchen Burns Bergman's story of how student drug testing failed her family.

The Trouble With Tough Love
The Washington Post [1-29-2006]
This Washington Post article by Maia Szalavitz examines the tough love form of addiction treatment for adolescents that relies on physical intimidation, humiliation and isolation.

Law Targets Student Aid for Drug Crimes; Provision Rescinding Financial Packages Criticized for Affecting Only Non-Affluent
The Washington Post [9-30-2005]
This Washington Post article looks at how the drug war has affected student aid.

Zero Tolerance Makes Zero Sense
The Washington Post [8-9-2005]
Radley Balko writes about the dangers of prosecuting parents under social host laws.

D.A.R.E.: The Never-Ending Folly
The Orange County Register [4-14-2005]
Marsha Rosenbaum examines the flaws of the D.A.R.E. program in the Orange County Register.

From Chocolate to Morphine, Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs
Drug Policy Alliance
Camilla Norman Field reviews the updated version of From Chocolate to Morphine, by Andrew Weil, M.D. and Winifred Rosen, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.

O'Reilly vs. The Doc
AlterNet [2-18-2005]
Safety First Founder, Marsha Rosenbaum, appeared on The O'Reilly Factor to communicate the importance of parents providing kids with realistic, science-based information about drugs.

Prosecuting Mom and Dad
AlterNet [1-19-2005]
Marsha Rosenbaum examines the “social host” laws passed in an effort to stop teenage drinking, which are making criminals out of otherwise responsible, law-abiding parents.

BUSTED: The Citizens Guide to Surviving Police Encounters
Drug Policy Alliance
Created by Flex Your Rights and narrated by DPA President Ira Glasser, BUSTED realistically depicts the pressure and confusion of common police encounters. In an entertaining and revealing manner, the video illustrates the right and wrong ways to handle different police encounters and pays special attention to demonstrating how citizens can courteously and confidently refuse police searches.

Keep Teenagers Safe: Zero Tolerance On Alcohol May Increase Drinking And Driving
San Jose Mercury News [12-29-2004]
While Marsha Rosenbaum applauds increasing alcohol education and crackdowns on drunken driving, including the loss of a driver's license for a DUI, she worries that some of the current efforts to eliminate underage drinking may actually reduce teen safety. Designated-driver programs have fallen out of favor as we move toward punitive, zero-tolerance policies

"Just Say No" Won't Keep Kids Away from Alcohol
San Jose Mercury News [12-3-2004]
Tony Newman, Media Relations Director with the Drug Policy Alliance, explains that his parents' goal for their two kids was not to practice the unrealistic mission of abstinence, but to keep them safe. In this regard, they were incredibly successful.

The Safety First Approach to Teens and Drugs
MAPS [2004]
In this article Marsha Rosenbaum reflects, “I began to look closely at prevention education when in 1988 my daughter was subjected to the DARE program without my permission. I first learned then that calling such programs ‘drug education’ was a misnomer. Adolescents and preadolescents, the targets of media and school-based anti-drug messages, were taught ‘refusal skills’ rather than being provided with objective information.”

'Scare Tactics' Don't Cut Teen Crime
Associated Press [10-16-2004]
Boot camps and other "get tough" programs for adolescents do not prevent crime and may make the problem even worse, an expert panel concluded Friday.

Drug Educator Advocates 'Safety First'
Salt Lake Tribune [10-8-2004]
Kids are going to see drugs. And more than half of them are going to use them. As a result, there needs to be more than a "Just Say No" response, says Marsha Rosenbaum.

A New Approach to Student Drug Testing
AlterNet [9-2-2004]
Nikos Leverenz, former staff member of the Drug Policy Alliance, writes, “Mandatory student drug testing, as practiced in some California schools, is rooted in fear and punishment. A new bill sitting on Gov. Schwarzenegger's desk would protect the privacy of students and the rights of parents.”

Sabotaging Drug 'Education' in S.F. Public Schools
San Francisco Chronicle [6-14-2004]
Pseudoscience and misinformation plague many efforts to keep young people off drugs. Mitch Earleywine, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, discusses how drug myths destroy credibility with teens and sabotage drug-abuse prevention.

Fallback Strategy for Teens Who Say Yes to Drugs
San Francisco Chronicle [5-21-2004]
Marsha Rosenbaum reflects on the recent death of a 14-year-old girl from Belmont who had taken the drug ecstasy. It is especially disturbing that, in the opinion of San Mateo County coroner Robert Foucrault, Irma Perez's life could have been saved with professional intervention.

Save Your Time and Money; Random Testing Doesn't Work
Fresno Bee [3-18-2004]
Marsha Rosenbaum responds to President Bush’s push for student drug testing in his 2004 State of the Union address.

Students Find Dialogue More Effective Than Drug Testing
USA Today [2-1-2004]
Leah Rorvig, former staff member of the Drug Policy Alliance, reflects on student drug testing from the perspective of a young person

Student Drug Testing No Silver Bullet
San Francisco Chronicle [2-6-04]
Safety First Founder, Marsha Rosenbaum argues that random drug testing may seem a panacea, but it is fraught with social, emotional and financial problems.  

Stop Pointing Guns at Our Kids
AlterNet [12-8-2003]
Stratford HS students were recently terrorized at school by Goose Creek, SC police. After rounding up the students, pointing guns at them, and searching their lockers, no drugs were found. Marsha Rosenbaum comments on the raid from the perspective of a parent.

Keeping kids off drugs: Pragmatism vs. zero tolerance – Let science be the guide
San Francisco Chronicle [6-2-2003]
Marsha Rosenbaum takes a critical look at the last twenty years of drug prevention efforts and movement towards change, such as the California PTA’s “Alternatives to Zero Tolerance” resolution.

False drug information harms kids
Seattle Post-Intelligencer [10-30-2003]
Marsha Rosenbaum reflects on a stunning announcement from researchers from Johns Hopkins University that data from their experiments with the now infamous drug Ecstasy, published a year ago in Science, turned out to be fatally flawed.

Drug Education Should Dare to be Different
Los Angeles Times [4-12-2003]
Marsha Rosenbaum argues that students need is drug education that incorporates their intelligence and resilience and goes beyond the simplistic "just say no" message.

Study of Student Drug Testing Shows It Does Not Deter Drug Use Among Teens
Drug Policy Alliance
The largest nationwide study of student drug testing recently found no difference in drug use rates between students of schools that have drug testing programs and those that do not. The study, published recently in the Journal of School Health, looked at 76,000 students across the country.

Just Say Less
Youth Today [05-2003]
Harm reduction may be the most effective strategy for dealing with teenage drug and alcohol users who don’t think they have a drug or alcohol problem.

“A Mother’s Advice”
San Francisco Chronicle [9-7-98] & [9-9-02]
It’s back-to-school time and as parents, we may be looking for the appropriate words and opportunities to discuss drugs and safety with our children. Marsha Rosenbaum wrote these two letters to her son, Johnny, as he entered high school in 1998 and as he went off to college in 2002.