A different kind of Just Say "No"

Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), Congress's chief drug warrior, is in hot water after placing two abstinence-only sex education proponents onto a panel organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Apparently, conservative politicians have been regularly diddling with sex ed science.

But this was the first time, conference organizers said, that a single politician had interfered so clearly. The concern, they said, was that studies on sexual behavior would not be made public if they jarred with the administration's views on abstinence and other public-health issues.

"At the CDC, they're beside themselves," Zenilman said. "These people ... haven't written anything. The only reason they're here is because of political pressure from the administration."

Neither of the new speakers, Dr. Patricia Sulak, an ob/gyn and director of "Worth the Wait," and Dr. Eric Walsh, went through the peer-review process required of other participants, although CDC officials did not explain why. Both panelists were funded by HHS, although others said they were told they had to pay their expenses.

Strong parallels can and should be drawn between the shortcomings of the Just Say "No" approaches to sex education and drug education. Like it or not, teens use drugs and have sex. Rather than acting like ostriches and sticking their heads in the sand, policymakers need to acknowledge reality and respond accordingly, doing what they can to keep young people as safe as possible.