DARE DOES NOT WORK

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
United States 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 harder
drugs are relatively harmless, too.

This is a recipe for disaster. Anti-drug education programs need to be
reality-based or they may backfire when youths 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 which please
parents, educators and police.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Program officer

Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation

www.drugpolicy.org