September 1997 — Exclusive

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A Tour of the World Wide Web for School Counselors

Substance Abuse

Alcohol and drug abuse precipitate major problems for school guidance counselors. The Web has excellent resources to assist counselors in addressing this critical issue.

The Drug-Free Home Page includes a section on signs and symptoms of specific substance abuses including alcohol, narcotics, marijuana, stimulants, hallucinogens, inhalants, hallucinogens, depressants and PCP (Angel Dust) (www.pasadena.com/drugfree/signs.htm). The site contains a comprehensive description of behavior characteristics associated with each substance abuse. A user can also search the drug and alcohol abuse database to find answers to specific questions. The data contained in this site would be extremely important to school counselors by preparing them to more effectively recognize students abusing substances so that they can be helped.

The Mental Health Net Web site has a section concerning alcohol and substance abuse (www.cmhc.com/guide/pro21.html). It contains a comprehensive listing of related hypertext links, newsgroups, mailing lists, publications, journals, research papers, and professional organizations and centers. This is an excellent location for school counselors to begin researching alcohol and drug abuse data on the Web. The wealth of data and links makes this site a very good launching pad for school counselors to find answers to related problems.

The University of Washington's Health Link Site has an excellent section on alcohol, smoking, and drug abuse (www.hslib.washington.edu/your_health/addiction.html). The site contains links to Al-Anon/AlaTeen, Prevention Primer, Smoking from All Sides, Web of Addictions, and You Can Quit Smoking.

The Prevention Primer (www.health.org/pubs/primer/index.htm) is an excellent reference tool for school counselors. It uses the public health approach to preventing alcohol, tobacco and other drug problems. The site includes a brief history of prevention efforts and an overview of key topics, issues, principles and successful approaches. The Primer includes a discussion of AIDS, binge drinking, cocaine use, heroin use, marijuana use, tobacco use and many additional topics. This Web site is another excellent location for obtaining valuable information concerning a wide variety of substance abuse topics.

Web of Addiction (www.well.com/user/woa/) was developed to provide accurate information about drug addictions.