While no one has figured out the magic formula for success for winning the “war on drugs and alcohol”, there are surely things we can do that would make drug prevention programs more effective.

Below Are Some Ways We Can Improve Drug Prevention Programs:

1. Get Parents, Teachers, and Caregivers Involved: Many drug prevention programs do not actively involve parents, teachers, or caregivers for youths at risk for drug and alcohol use. Mandating that parents/caregivers be involved with drug prevention programs may increase the likelihood of success, since many parents and caregivers may be unaware of the potential their child may have to use drugs and alcohol.

2. Teach Coping Methods and Life Skills: People often turn to drugs and alcohol for dealing with problems, even though drugs and alcohol create larger problems and often make other problems worse. Teaching people at risk for using drug or alcohol coping skills such as stress management, releasing anger and other emotions, problem solving, decision making, and other necessary life skills may reduce the temptation or need for someone to use drugs or alcohol.

3. Introduce Recovered Addicts to Those at Risk: If you speak to someone who’s been through drug or alcohol addiction and recovery, you’ll learn a lot about why you shouldn’t do drugs pretty quickly. Small focus groups of teens and someone who has overcome addiction might have an affect on them to either not use drugs or alcohol in the first place, or if they have experimented with drugs and alcohol already encourage them to stop or seek help if necessary before the problems get worse.

4. Implement Drug Prevention Throughout the Community: Many communities as a whole do not participate in drug prevention. While some programs may exist, they only typically involve a small group of organizations in a community. If churches, local businesses, and other organizations in a community became more active in advocating the prevention of drug and alcohol abuse it would create better recognition on staying drug and alcohol free as well as give those who use drugs or alcohol more encouragement to quit.

5. Create Awareness: Many people do not realize how many people are affected by drugs and alcohol and what the threats are. It is estimated there are over 2 million alcohol and drug related deaths, many of which could have been preventable, each year. If people were aware of how many lives have been destroyed – and how many could be saved – it could make a big difference.

6. Reduce Costs: Billion dollar commercial campaigns and random drug testing are not the answer to preventing drug and alcohol abuse. There are many things that can be done to reduce costs without losing any effectiveness. Parents interacting and communicating with their teens for example costs nothing at all.

Do you have any ideas on what could be done to prevent drug addiction and alcohol abuse? Any suggestions on how drug prevention programs could be more successful? Share it in the comments below.

It is however entirely possible to enjoy an alcohol free Super Bowl Sunday. The key is to make Super Bowl Sunday less of a reminder that you don’t drink anymore and more of a focus on spending time with family or friends watching football. Our article on Staying Sober During the Holidays also provides some tips that you may find useful.

Here are some ideas to help you enjoy a sober Super Bowl Sunday:

1. Host an Alcohol Free Super Bowl Party: If you are concerned about others offering you drinks at parties you attend, hosting your own Super Bowl party may be a great way to avoid being in that situation. Invite over friends or family who understand that you don’t drink anymore, and make some tasty treats to eat during the game.

2. Have a Substitution: If you do go to a Super Bowl party, be sure that you have a substitute for alcohol. Having one of your favorite non-alcoholic drinks on hand will give you something to enjoy while watching the game.

3. Avoid Sports Bars: Going to a sports bar to watch the game is likely to dig up a lot of past memories and feelings. By either hosting your own party or attending a party in someone’s home, it will be much easier to say no to a drink and not feel any urges or temptations to have a drink.

4. Practice Saying No: You don’t have to give anyone a detailed explanation on why you don’t want an alcoholic drink. Practice saying No and you will feel more confident if you are offered a drink. Saying something like “No Thanks, I think I’m in the mood for a Pepsi” makes it easy to deal with others offering you a drink.

5. Be Careful While Driving: Not surprisingly with Super Bowl Sunday being one of the biggest days in alcohol sales, it is also a big day for drunk driving related accidents and deaths. Stay alert when driving, wear your seat belts, and if you’re in a cold climate be on the look out for patches of snow or ice. Also, do not let any of your friends or family members drive home drunk – offering to drive them home or stay over for the night can help make the roads safer and even potentially save lives.

Have any other tips on enjoying an alcohol free Super Bowl Sunday? Do you remember your first Super Bowl Sunday sober? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

D.A.R.E is one of the most popular drug prevention programs, that has gained national exposure since the mid 1980’s. They provide classrooms and students with many activities, ranging from police visiting to talk with students to education materials. While the program is highly acclaimed, millions of teens still are at risk for trying drugs or alcohol.

The National Ad Council is another organization that also runs several public service announcement campaigns, usually through television and radio advertising. While they claim their campaigns have been effective since 1992, there were over 13,000 drunk driving related deaths in 2007 that could prove otherwise. Other government funded commercials for using drugs have cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and again with no proof in numbers results of it being effective.

Many schools, who have not seen results with traditional drug prevention programs, have turned instead to random student drug testing. This is a highly controversial topic, since many feel as if it is an invasion of their privacy or creates distrust between students and school staff. It can also be costly – ranging between $10-$30 for a drug test can quickly add up. If you tested 100 students a year in a class, the cost could be between $1000-$3000, not to mention many students would also possibly slide through the system and never be tested at all. To drug test every student in random intervals throughout the school year would cost a school with 1000 students cost anywhere between $30,000-$60,000 a year.

Until we start seeing an actual significant proof of numbers, we can’t really say that drug preventions programs work and are effective. And that makes it very questionable as to why we continue to spend millions of federal and tax payer money on programs that have mostly shown to be ineffective.

If we agree that our drug prevention programs don’t work and are ineffective, the next step is to answer the question “How Could They Be More Effective?”

What are your thoughts on drug prevention programs? Do drug prevention programs work? Are they effective? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

To get started, answer the marijuana addiction test questions below:

1. Do you smoke (or otherwise consume) marijuana more than once a day?

2. Do you use marijuana before school, work, or social functions?

3. Do you use marijuana as soon as you wake up in the morning?

4. Do you need marijuana to fall asleep at night?

5. Do you often neglect other responsibilities to make smoking marijuana a priority or plan your day’s activities around smoking marijuana?

6. Does it seem like smoking pot isn’t fun anymore or that you need to smoke twice as much to get the same effects?

7. Do you have problems with motivation, memory, concentrating or feel that your life is out of control?

8. Have friends and family members expressed concern?

9. Do you feel anxious, have problems sleeping, or feel moody if you do not smoke marijuana?

10. Do you use marijuana as a means to escape or deal with stress and other problems?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, it is quite possible that you may be experiencing marijuana dependency or addiction. While this marijuana addiction test is not conclusive, answering yes to these questions can signal a problem with marijuana. Fortunately, marijuana does not have severe withdrawal symptoms and it can be easy to get your life back on track again.

If you’re not at the point you are physically addicted to alcohol, but think you should start cutting back, we’ve included a few tips of how to slowly cut down on drinking alcohol. It is VERY important however that if you do experience withdrawal symptoms that you speak to a physician or drug and alcohol center that can help you manage these withdrawal symptoms safely. You may not even be able to tell if you are going through withdrawal symptoms, so be sure you read our list of alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Cutting back slowly on drinking alcohol if you are not physically addicted to do is much easier than if you are physically addicted. It begins first with awareness – how much do you drink per day, per week or month?

Start looking at what triggers you to drink or what situations you are more likely to drink in. Recognizing why you drink will help you find ways to slowly start cutting out alcohol from your lifestyle. For example, you may notice that you drink during sports games or order a glass of wine when you go out for dinner. You could start watching one game without any alcohol or not order an alcoholic drink at dinner, opting for something like water or iced tea instead.

The next thing to do is to limit yourself how much alcohol you consume at once. Instead of having 3-4 beers at once, try to have just one or two. Drinking less alcohol at once will help you lower your tolerance and the amount of alcohol in your body.

It is also helpful for some to limit themselves to drinking once a week. The problem with this is you may notice that your whole week planning may start to revolve around this day and it is likely you will want to consume more than one or two drinks at that time.

How you decide to limit your alcohol consumption is up to you. Just remember it can be very difficult to slowly cut back on drinking alcohol, which is why for many it is a much better decision to completely stop drinking all together. You will feel better and you will not constantly be thinking about alcohol – instead you will start thinking of other more enjoyable activities in life that don’t revolve around drinking alcohol. Many people need help to learn how to how to stop drinking and asking for and seeking help before drinking becomes out of your control is a good thing to do. There’s no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed in having professionals help you quit drinking slowly or completely.

Understanding drug addiction and alcoholism is not always easy. Many times an addict will not want help or realize that their addiction is a problem. Friends and family tend to look for somebody to blame or think stopping is easy. Most addicts and the people close to them go through a variety of emotions, ranging between everything from anger to embarrassment.

This site is written by people who have “been there, done that” with drug addiction and alcoholism. We have lost many friends to drug overdoses, reckless behavior, and other problems related to drug and alcohol addiction. We have experienced withdrawal, treatment, and even relapse. Feel free to ask us any questions about alcoholism and drug abuse in the comments below.