It was surely not a coincidence that drug abuse declined during the Reagan years.
Dr.Herbert Kleber, interviewed on PBS's Frontline* told the truth.
"To diminish drug use, you need to de-glamorize and de-normalise drug use" in the manner of the Just Say No campaign, which "had a good effect in terms of decreasing initiation and use".
From l980 to 1991, marijuana use among high school seniors decreased from 33% to
12%, "an enormous decrease" according to Dr. Kleber. 21985-1986 turned out to be the high point of the cocaine epidemic".
Tragically, marijuana use increased rapidly again between l992 and l997 he added.
*(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/interviews/kleber.html)
The reason for the increase was because funding for prevention was cut - the
Government believing that the drug problem had been solved. It is essential that prevention funding and prevention messages continue even when there is a downturn in drug use. It will take more tha one generation to revert to the very low rates of illegal drug use in the 1950's. It is also interesting to note that research has shown that regular use of marijuana leads to the use of cocaine - thus prevention of marijuana use will also have a prevention of cocaine effect.