Adolescent Drug Use: What School Counselors Need To Know

Posted on: June 20, 2016

News & Insights From Santa Monica Psychiatrist Katherine Watkins, M.D.

In 2006, I co-wrote a research paper, “An Update on Adolescent Drug Use: What Schools Counselors Need to Know,”with research underwritten by the BEST Foundation for a Drug-Free Tomorrow. While recently reviewing the paper, I realized that its information was still quite relevant.

In writing the paper, I and my co-authors had a simple premise: School counselors need to have accurate and age-appropriate prevention education information in order to counsel teens on drug use. The article presented developmentally specific prevention materials for the most important emerging substances of abuse: Ecstasy, methamphetamine, cough and cold medications, prescription opiates and stimulants, and the “date rape” drugs. Because developing appropriate materials required understanding how adolescents develop, we adopted an expert-panel approach, supplemented with a literature review and teen focus groups.

If you would like to read the original article in its entirety, please download the PDF here.

Posted in: Public Policy