D.A.R.E. A Recipe For Disaster

A letter to the editor (April 2) makes the point that if the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (DARE) program saves just one child it is worth
continuing. What about all the children DARE harms?

The scare tactics used are counterproductive. Students who realize they are
being lied to about marijuana often make the mistake of assuming that
harder drugs are relatively harmless as well. This is a recipe for
disaster. Anti-drug education programs need to be reality-based or they may
backfire when kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among their peers.
After almost two decades of DARE in the United States, heroin use among
high school seniors has reached record levels. Minimizing drug use requires
strategies based on proven effectiveness, not "feel-good" programs that
please parents, educators and police.

Robert Sharpe
Program Officer
The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation
Washington, D.C.