ONE QUESTION: DOES IT WORK?

County officials should use only one measure in determining whether the
county continues to spend money on the anti-drug DARE program: Does it
work? If it keeps kids off drugs, it's well worth the money. If it doesn't,
it's simply a waste of time and tax dollars.

Unfortunately, despite the program's popularity among educators and police,
there is no empirical evidence that DARE by itself makes any difference at
all in the fight against drugs. If that's true, a task force appointed by
County Executive Dan Finley to review the program should have no problem
concluding that the county should bring to an end its involvement with DARE.

DARE supporters - who include District Attorney Paul Bucher and Sheriff
William Kruziki - like to argue that there is no other program that can do
the job, and since there's nothing else out there, they will continue to
support DARE.

But with all due respect to the county's top law enforcement officials,
that's not an argument; that's an excuse to spend money. If DARE isn't
doing the job, there is no real difference between retaining the program
and doing nothing. Actually, there is one difference: DARE costs a lot
more. But spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to make no difference
in kids' lives does not strike us as a particularly sound policy.

Make no mistake: It's important to tell kids about the dangers of drugs.
It's important to have police officers and sheriff's deputies interact with
kids. But we suspect those two things can be done at a lower cost than
they're being done now under DARE.

Finley's task force needs to take a very careful look at the costs and the
benefits of the DARE program. Anecdotal success stories, emotional letters
from supportive parents and stirring messages from educators and law
enforcement authorities aren't enough.

For DARE to be continued, there needs to be hard evidence that it actually
works. And if there isn't, there should be no question about dumping it.