Everyone aged 18-25 seems to be up to no good. We are bad, bad, bad it seems to be all that we ever hear. College administrators and the news media try to scare and bully us into fleeing from risky behavior using many different methods. In the fight to prevent substance abuse among college students, tackling the problem has traditionally involved strategies such as counseling, scare tactics, education about pharmacological effects, and policy initiatives such as zero tolerance for under 21. However, studies show that these traditional methods do little to prevent substance abuse at the college level.
Counseling is only effective after the problem has begun.
Scare tactics carry little credibility because most young people feel invincible and they can often excite, rather than discourage, risky behavior. And public policy initiatives do no more than perhaps change the place where students drink. All of these strategies, much like the media, are focused on the negative. No one is trying to scare me into behaving or shame me about how my peers are behaving. In fact, it s quite the opposite.