DARE DROPPED BY U.S.

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
U.S. 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 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, 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 that please
parents, educators and police.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer

The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation

Washington, DC