DARE PROGRAM AIMS TO INSPIRE YOUTH

Just say no.

The slogan is simple but the underlying message - refusing offers to try
alcohol, cigarettes and street drugs - can be a difficult one to impart to
youth.

But a new program in B.C. schools is aimed at doing just that ? preventing
substance abuse among school aged children.

The DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is a 17-week program targeting
Grade 5 and 6 students. The program is being taught by RCMP officers to
about 350 children at eight Kamloops schools.

April 2-8 is officially DARE week in the city, with the goal to raise
awareness for the program in the community. Capt. Patrick Froehle, a
retired member of the Los Angeles Police department, developed the DARE
program in 1983 and will also be in Kamloops this week.

Kamloops RCMP Const. Kate Bamber said the program focuses on Grade 5 and 6
students as they are most receptive to drug prevention education. Bamber
said the majority of kids haven't yet experimented with drugs or alcohol at
that age.

Not all of the young people that she teaches, however, have been raised in
drug-free families. Bamber notes that being a uniformed RCMP officer in the
classroom also puts the police in a more positive position.

"It's a very minor success but it's huge for some of these kids, especially
when they're used to seeing a police officer haul one of their parents away."

Bamber said drugs are defined as any substance other than food that has
mind-altering effects. Research has shown that youth as young as 12 have
tried drinking alcohol and by age 13 many have tried smoking marijuana.

"These younger kids are in their formative years and that's when we want to
get to them," she said.

"I really believe prevention and education combined with enforcement is the
way to get the message across," Bamber added.

DARE is about more than simply inspiring the "just say no" message. Bamber
said the program also teaches self esteem, learning assertiveness, how to
manage stress without taking drugs and resisting gang and group violence.
Students also identify positive alternatives to drugs and alcohol, such as
sports and other after-school activities. At the end of the 17-week
program, the kids prepare their own personal commitments not to use drugs
and then read them aloud to the class.

Kamloops-Thompson school trustee Lal Sharma is critical of the program. He
feels it needs to be modified and called the message too simplistic.

"I think DARE does not deliver. I'd like to see some evidence that DARE has
reduced the use of drugs," he said Sunday.

Sharma said one problem is that society as a whole continues to preach but
not practice.

Parents are not setting a good role model, he added. "The more we tell kids
not to do it, take drugs and drink, the more they are going to do it. It's
a fact about being a kid." he said.