We offer the following information and links to provide more resources related to the issues of young people and drug use. We've included information on the topics of cross-cultural adolescent drug use, alternative drug education strategies, and drug policy as it impacts families.

Articles and research on young people and & drug use
Youth-focused organizations and programs
Drug Education links
Families & Drug Policy

• Discovering a Sacrament that Worked for Me by Fred Smith of Santa Rosa, CA.
• Rites of Passage: Kids and Psychedelics, a special issue of the MAPS Bulletin from 2004.
  
• Young People and Entheogen Use: a Modern Rite of Passage, by Andrei Foldes, with Amba Morton, Eric Johnson, et al. A MAPS Bulletin article describing research with young people in the U.S. who report on their first experiences with psychedelics, and the author's vision of a more meaningful drug education.
  
• Adolescent Drug Use in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by Charles Grob and Marlene Dobkin de Rios. An examination of drug use among adolescents in initiation rituals in several indigenous cultures, concluding that it is the lack of socially sanctioned context that promotes drug abuse in Western societies.
  
• Hallucinogen Use by Juveniles in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by R. Stuart This article, which also looks at adolescent initiation rituals in various cultures, includes interviews with a number of families in northern California who use psychedelics. (click here for html version)
  
• "Dope." A May 17, 2002, Alternet column by Dan Savage, about a teen who turned in his pot-growing father. The author comments on the disturbing implications of this son's choice, and of the press's reaction.
  
• The Moral Panic About Raves: Newspaper Transmission and Legislation, by Joel Mitchell. A master's thesis in sociology examining exaggeration in media coverage of ecstasy and raves, the impact this coverage has had on local legislation, and the response from rave administrators.
  
• NIDA's 2001 Monitoring the Future Survey. The National Institute of Drug Abuse's annual report on trends in adolescent drug use.
  
• Excerpt from Aldous Huxley's Island. This passage from Aldous Huxley's vision of a utopian island, Pala, describes the rite of passage ritual undergone by Pala's young people. The ritual includes the sacramental use of a psychedelic, the moksha-medicine.

• DanceSafe -- an organization which provides harm reduction info and techniques, primarily to the rave community.
  
• Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. A campus organization focused on involving students in changing drug policy; one major issue on the SSDP agenda is repealing the Drug-Free Schools provision of the Higher Education Act which bars students with drug convictions from receiving financial aid.

• "What do we tell the kids?" Winter 1996 issue of the MAPS bulletin, including several articles relevant to drug education and family discussion of psychedelics and marijuana.
  
• Researching School-Based Drug Education: Drug Education and Democracy (In)action, by Joel Brown, PhD. Research on drug education programs and their ineffectiveness at influencing students' choices about drugs.
  
• High School Students Talk about Drug Education Programs. Interviews with high school students about what is needed in a drug education program.
  
• "Drug Education" edition of the ReconsiDer bulletin. The Winter 2002 issue of the publication by ReconsiDer, a New York-based drug policy reform group. The focus in these articles is on problems with the D.A.R.E. program.
  
• "Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education" -- a pamphlet by Marsha Rosenbaum of the Drug Policy Alliance (formerly the Lindesmith Center).
  
• "Communicating with your teenager about drugs." Originally from the Australian Drug Policy Forum, this provides some useful advice for parents seeking to open dialogue about drugs.
  
• A nice set of links on drug education from the Drug Policy Alliance (formerly the Lindesmith Center).
  
• "The Straight Dope" -- drug education brochures from the Harm Reduction Coalition.
  
• "On Reinventing Drug Education, Especially for Adolescents" -- a paper presented by Rodney Skagar at the Second International Conference on Drugs and Young People, April 2001.

• Common Sense for Drug Policy's research on child and adolescent drug use and the failure of current drug abuse prevention strategies.
  
• A Common Sense for Drug Policy ad revealing some of the harm the drug war inflicts on children.
  
• The Drug Policy Alliance (Lindesmith Center) Fact Sheet on children and drug policy.
  
• "Children of the Drug War" -- from the November Coalition, a non-profit group focused on the drug war prison population, a heartbreaking page dedicated to children of drug war prisoners, with stories and letters from children and their parents behind bars.
  
• Family Watch is an organization dedicated to the impact of drug policy on families, women, and children.
  
• Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a organization of families who have been torn apart by mandatory minimum sentencing laws for drug violations.