DARE TO END THE DARE PROGRAM

It Doesn't Keep Kids From Using Drugs

The DARE program isn't working, and it has to go.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education has been in Suffolk for two decades.
It puts cops in the classroom - that's a nice side effect - but it
fails at its primary mission: discouraging drug use. Everybody knows
that, even the politicians who argue most vehemently to keep it alive.
So it's time to end the charade and try a new approach, called
HealthSmart.

DARE is popular with parents, who think it creates a bond between kids
and police officers; with the officers, who would otherwise be riding
patrol cars, and with legislators, because parents like it, and
parents vote. Lawmakers also love DARE graduations, which make great
photo ops.

But the real question is what happens after graduation. Kids exposed
to DARE are not significantly less likely to use drugs than children
who don't have DARE. So, in 2001, John Gallagher, then the Suffolk
police commissioner, dared to try killing it and ran into a firestorm.

In that atmosphere, the county legislature launched a DARE task force.
Its report, like several others, found "no credible evidence that the
DARE program is effective in decreasing long-term drug use." It liked
police officers as teachers, but said they'd be more effective "in a
less rigid, more comprehensive program than DARE."

That alternative wasn't available in the county then. But it is now: a
curriculum called HealthSmart. The Department of Health Services
contracted with Eastern Suffolk BOCES to run the school component of
Suffolk's tobacco control program, and BOCES chose HealthSmart. In 37
school districts, it deals with drugs, is more comprehensive and
flexible than DARE and teaches children over a longer period of time.
With cops added, it can cover modern threats that didn't exist when
DARE began, such as Internet predators.

County Executive Steve Levy and Commissioner Richard Dormer want to
kill DARE and enhance HealthSmart by adding cops: 10 full-time
officers, instead of the 21 assigned to DARE now. Wisely, the county
legislature put off action on a bill to keep DARE going. We know that
DARE doesn't work. HealthSmart might. Why not give it a chance?