Medical School Education on Abuse of Alcohol and Other Psychoactive Drugs

This statement is directed toward the broad question of drug use and abuse. It includes principles pertaining to the long pressing problems of alcohol use and alcoholism, the currently conspicuous problems associated with dangerous and illicit drugs, and the overlooked abuses of drugs thought harmless. The Need.— Although there has long been a need for effective medical education on the use and abuse of drugs, this need has recently been focused to a point of urgency by several convergent factors: (a) There have been relatively recent changes in the nature and distribution of drug use, with an apparent rising prevalence of inappropriate, dangerous, and illegal uses of drugs by many segments of the population. Especially has there been an increase in the use of psychotropic drugs by young people. At the same time, the recognized magnitude of alcoholism and other alcohol-related problems has continued to grow. (b) There is currently