Successes in battle against drugs - new Monitor series

From the battle against the drug habit comes some hard, specific good news.

The bad news is all too obvious: Dealing in illegal drugs is estimated at $90 billion a year; their use is causing countless tragedies. But the good news is too significant to be overlooked. Across America the battle is no longer considered too hopeless to be worth fighting. The drug culture has not won. Something can be done, as parent groups and student groups are discovering. At the grass-roots level parents are working together to win back their children - and often succeeding. They refuse to accept the experts' opinion that no child over l5 can be weaned from the habit.

Big business is rising to the occasion, with corporations like the Gillette Company, IBM, and the Marriott Corporation running programs to show employees why drugs cause, rather than answer, problems, and to offer more trustworthy alternatives.

The US military has embarked on its toughest-ever crackdown against drug users.

In a series of four articles beginning on Page 12 today, Hilary DeVries details how America is rising to meet the '80s drug challenge.