Annually there are 30,722 alcohol-related deaths in the United States alone, a high number that will increase unless society approaches the issue. As a result of the high mortality rate, parents and teachers are hesitant with their teenagers reading and hearing cases of alcohol abuse. The book Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury has a prevalent element of alcohol and substance abuse which is becoming controversial amongst parents and schools. One case surfaced in Venado Middle School in Irvine, California about the book being censored, with teachers blacking out sections of the book. Some seem to think ignoring the rising death toll will make the problem disappear, but this is not the case and confrontation …show more content…
The default to preventing drug use in adolescence has always been scare tactics, but the article “Resonant Messages to Prevent Prescription Drug misuse by Teens” suggests that the traditional tactics do not work and the community should take a new approach, since “the message characteristics recommended by contemporary research may be ineffective when applied to prescription drugs. Second, there is a strong need to reexamine message elements, such as scare tactics, considered ineffective to determine their effectiveness in curbing prescription drug misuse," (Twombly 4). The evidence showed the value of confronting substance abuse topics without avoiding or using scare methods against them. The study conducted by Twombly showed that these forms do not work and instead confronting the dangers and experiences of drug abuse in alternative ways, such as literature since it will leave an impression and be more effective. Therefore, with the teenagers' interests in mind, school boards should use this book for instruction since scare tactics and avoiding subjects are not the route to take when preventing drug