Pubdate: Sat, 13 May 2000
Source: MetroWest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 1999, Community Newspaper Company
Address: 33 New York Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701
Fax: (508) 626-3885
Feedback: http://www.townonline.com/metrowest/misc/forms/metrolet.html
Website: http://www.townonline.com/metrowest/
Author: James M. Pillsbury
Cited: NORML: http://www.norml.org/
Bookmark: For more on DARE click this link:
http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm

DARE LIES ABOUT MARIJUANA

I wish to thank the Ashland Police Department and its new chief for having 
an open house on Sunday, May 7. It's refreshing going to a police station 
knowing full well you can leave. I was so impressed with all the trappings 
and especially all the officers' friendly demeanor. That too is refreshing. 
When entering the station one could not miss the huge DARE display and of 
course, I couldn't either. One need not look far to see what drug education 
has come to in this country. The tables were filled with pencils, rulers, 
buttons, bumper stickers, drug displays, and the list goes on. As I read 
some of the literature, with great curiosity, I noticed that the same old 
propaganda is still in the bowels of this great beast called DARE. The 
outright lies and misinformation about marijuana in these books is 
criminal. Even I, a consumer of cannabis for 31 years and an extremely 
informed individual, am shocked at what the DARE program says about 
marijuana. This same propaganda goes back to the 1930s and 1940s. It wasn't 
true then and most certainly isn't now.

While reading the literature at the table, one could not miss the 
iridescent green flyer on Ashland's DARE program. Established in 1991, the 
total number of graduates is impressive (6,785). One might think that this 
program has a huge faculty funded by alumni, benefactors and a huge 
endowment from The National Education Commission. But this tax funded ($700 
million a year "and counting" program) is and will now be the answer to any 
drug use among school age children. The only government funded, peer 
reviewed, long term study done by the Research Triangle Institute, clearly 
and convincingly states that DARE does not have any influence on children's 
attitudes toward drugs. Eighty-five percent of Massachusetts teenagers say 
marijuana is easy to obtain and over half will try it before they graduate 
from high school. Rational drug education and control polices begin with 
honesty and scientific knowledge.

Towns across this great land have reconsidered the DARE program and have 
decided to opt out. The Big Dig of drug education known as DARE will 
someday be a fleeting memory right here in Massachusetts, but until then, 
groups of people like NORML will champion the truth about marijuana, this 
Saturday on the Common in Framingham.

James M. Pillsbury
Metrowest NORML
Framingham
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake