Drug use is a very complex social phenomenon, because it reaches questions of human values and senses. Thus, the prevention of drug abuse is not neutral and involves ideological elements, able do mask its goals. Ethical reflection about its aims, contents and methods are fundamental in order that its actions obtain credibility and efficacy. The critical analysis of the repressive oriented prevention shows that it is based on pedagogy of terror, which is contrasted with the model of educational prevention. The school has a fundamental role in awakening the psycho-affective and creative potential of children and in leading them to conscious and responsible choices about their health. This one is discussed in the context of a human ecology, where drugs appear like one of the aggressors who menace the social and natural balance, to be saved by an ethics of responsibility.
drug prevention; preventive education; educational philosophy