You might think this article is about sex, it is not.

It is about the state's Education Department dropping a 'just say no' teaching policy when teens are confronted with the choice to drink alcohol or participate in using drugs.

"The state's secondary schools will dump their "just say no" approach to drug and alcohol education as part of a radical new attack on teen boozing and drug taking.

Students will practise first aid for overdoses, pour standard drinks, and study drug-free ways to achieve a "high", in a new curriculum.

The Government will roll out the program, for year 8 and 9 students, this year after a successful three-year trial in 21 Victorian schools.

The award-winning trial found that teaching teenagers about alcohol - rather than demanding abstinence - was the most effective way of cutting binge drinking rates...."

Schools to dump ‘just say no' program on drugs, booze

Herald Sun, July 2nd 2012

Much like when confronted with sexual abstinence the message seems to be "it is unreasonable to think that teenagers can abstain all-together so a compromise must be made".

This is a compromise that is fraught with danger. Discipline, it seems, is no longer in vogue as the Victorian school system takes one of the initial steps down the slippery slope of conformity where individual rights trump common sense because abstinence is seen as an impossible aspiration. Why?