FIGHTING DRUGS TAKES MORE THAN T-SHIRTS AND COOL CARS

The Twin Falls School District and the city's police department will decide
later this month whether there's room anymore for D.A.R.E., the anti-drug
program for fifth- and six-graders.

The program is much-beloved by many grownups. But it's increasingly
apparent that the Drug Abuse Resistance and Education program has dwindling
credibility among its target audience. More importantly, there's mounting
evidence from studies throughout the country that it just doesn't work anymore.

The Twin Falls police and the school district may spend the money that they
now invest in D.A.R.E. on a school-resource officer for elementary schools.
A cop in the grade schools may be as effective in deterring drugs as all
those flashy black D.A.R.E. T-shirts and brightly painted police cars, and
there's a good case to be made that a police presence there is needed to
help deter crime.

D.A.R.E. -- which is still used by schools throughout south-central Idaho
- -- aims to give pre-teens the tools to make informed decisions about drugs
and alcohol. But, it seems to us, D.A.R.E. was never more than a partial
solution.

Perhaps a better approach is the ''asset building'' program sponsored by
HealthNet, a coalition of local health, educational and social service
agencies and community members. HealthNet promotes skills and attributes
that kids need to resist drugs -- and to grow up to be healthy, happy adults.

In contrast to D.A.R.E., there's limited preaching involved in asset
building. Instead, the program celebrates attributes such as self- respect,
personal integrity, and family and community values.

And it involves grownups -- parents, friends, neighbors -- along with kids.
If you're fighting drug use in youngsters, those adult helpers are
indispensable.

D.A.R.E. operates under the very real handicap that teen-agers tend to
regard with scorn the lessons they learned when they were 11 or 12. That
doesn't mean those lessons aren't valuable. It just means that kids by and
large nowadays don't buy the '80s-style, just-say-no approach that's at the
heart of D.A.R.E.

Supporters of D.A.R.E. are correct when they say the program has saved
lives, and that even one youngster diverted from substance abuse makes
D.A.R.E. worthwhile. Maybe it's just time we tried something more effective.

If the Twin Falls schools drop D.A.R.E., they will consider adopting
another anti-drug curriculum -- of which many are available. That's
certainly appropriate.

But keeping kids off drugs is a whole community's job, and it's time we
recognized it. That's why the asset building approach makes sense.