Adolescents role-play situations that force them to come up with avoidance and refusal skills that focus specifically on drugs. ASAP uses medical students as group leaders. Medical students have an understanding of the science behind drug abuse that teachers, administrators or police officers may not possess. At the same time, medical students are in the position of serving as positive peer role models for the adolescents. The ASAP program offers an integrated drug education program which is meant to complement existing drug programs within the school, community, and home.
Every effort is made to customize the program for individual schools.
At the same time, medical students work with teachers and administrators to develop curriculum outside the program. This allows the program to build upon existing resources and continue to make a difference in the classrooms after the medical student sessions. While yet to be scientifically tested, we believe this comprehensive approach offers much promise as a model for drug education that can effectively change adolescent's drug use behavior. J. Drug Education. 2 Bell, R., P. Ellickson, E. Harrison.