Pubdate: Sun, 08 Apr 2001
Source: Kamloops This Week (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Kamloops This Week
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1271
Author: Robert Sharpe

DARE DOES NOT WORK

Editor:

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program may be well intended, 
but good  intentions are no substitute for effective anti-drug education.

While Canadian schools are just beginning to implement DARE, schools in the 
United States are dropping the program. Every methodologically sound 
evaluation of DARE  has found the program to be either ineffective or 
counterproductive.

The scare tactics used do more harm than good. Students who realize they 
are being lied to about marijuana often make the mistake of assuming harder 
drugs are relatively harmless, too.

This is a recipe for disaster. Anti-drug education programs need to be 
reality-based or they may backfire when youths are inevitably exposed to 
drug use among their peers.

After almost two decades of DARE, heroin use among high school seniors in 
the U.S. has reached record levels. Minimizing drug use requires strategies 
based on proven effectiveness, not "feel good" programs which please 
parents, educators and police.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Program officer

Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation

www.drugpolicy.org
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager