If you’re wondering why with all the billions of dollars spent on the war on drugs, seeing how that money is spent might shed a little light on things. The new White House Drug Policy pages give a breakdown, state-by-state, on federal grants to deal with drug problems. If the money were more wisely spent, there’s a good chance the alcohol and drug addiction problem wouldn’t be half of what it is. That money needs to go toward drug rehab and prevention.

Let’s just have a look at the money spent preventing kids from drinking and taking drugs, and let’s take Tennessee as an example.

Tennessee gets $107 million to combat the drug problem. Where does it go?

The Department of Health and Human Services gets $65 million, about $27 million goes to the Department of Justice for law enforcement, prisons, and so on, and about $3.4 million is spent by the Department of Housing and Urban Development on shelters. There are also several other, smaller, activities.

What’s missing? Educating kids. It’s a well known fact that children who drink or take drugs in elementary school, high school and college are more likely to become alcoholics and drug addicts as adults. If you can stop them from drinking and taking drugs while they’re still young, there’s a good chance they won’t turn out to be drinkers or druggies at all.

Kids who drink are four times more likely to become alcoholic adults than those who don’t.

So, how much goes to the Department of Education to educate kids and help prevent them from taking drugs and alcohol? Under $6 million – out of $107 million.

And of that $6 million, only $425,000 goes to Alcohol Abuse Reduction Grants, and $375,000 goes to Grants for Coalitions to Prevent and Reduce Alcohol Abuse at Institutions of Higher Education. That’s about $15,000 for each of Tennessee’s 25 public colleges and universities.

Tennessee is on the list of top ten states for drug addiction overall and is the top state for non-medical use of pain relievers (e.g. OxyContin, methadone, hydrocodone, etc.). It also has a drug-induced death rate 30% higher than the national average.

Someone needs to take a look at what the money is being spent on and start preventing the state’s alcohol and drug problems. And for those young people who are already abusing alcohol or drugs, a good drug rehab program will set them straight so they don’t continue. Helping kids now will make huge changes in everyone’s future.

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A recent study found that whether or not a person turns to alcohol to relieve stress depends on how early they started drinking. Parents who instill good habits in their kids may avoid the horror of their kids becoming drug addicts or alcoholics who need drug rehab to be able to live a normal, productive life.

The results of this study are completely logical. If kids are raised to put things away when they’re finished using them, eat a good diet, save money, and so on, they tend to carry the things they’ve learned into adulthood.

Also, if kids are taught to work out solutions to problems rather than taking drugs or alcohol to ‘forget’ them, they will grow up with that life skill. It will not only help them confront life instead of escaping from it, it will also help them create the life they want.

Kids who turn to drugs or alcohol when under stress will never really learn those skills and their lives could be miserable. They may not do street drugs but, eventually, they could wind up with a prescription drug addiction – which may be even worse.

It’s also important that parents set a good example. In fact, the ‘do as I say not as I do’ approach doesn’t work very well at all. If parents are solving their problems with drugs – sleeping pills, antidepressants, painkillers, tranquilizers and so on – that teaches the kids that that’s how adults cope.

If you want your kids to face up to life and use their head to make it better, teach them the basic skills they need to do that, and set a good example.

It will really pay off for you in the end.

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