DRUG PROGRAM NEEDS CHANGE

Regarding your March 8 editorial on the popular but ineffective Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (DARE) program, a revamping of the widely used program
is long overdo.

DARE's scare tactics 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 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, D.C. via e-mail