by Susan Foster

About the author: Susan Foster is vice president and director of policy research and analysis at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, which studies how substance abuse affects society. Foster directed the CASA report on sex and substance abuse.

A PBS [Public Broadcasting System] Frontline documentary chronicled an outbreak of syphilis among a large circle of teens in a suburban Atlanta community. What was even more alarming to health officials and the community was the revelation of a pattern of sex among upwards of 200 teens, focused around a group of girls, some as young as 13, with multiple partners, drinking and drug use, little if any protection, with no regard for the consequences.

Drug Use and Sex

The events in Georgia raise the question of...