REVISED DARE PROGRAM WILL REACH MORE TEENS

HERE'S some reassuring news: most kids aren't doing drugs.

Statistics show about 23 percent of 10th-graders used an illicit drug,
including alcohol, in the past month. That means 77 percent didn't.

The good news is that DARE -- which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance
Education -- is taught in 75 percent of the elementary schools in the
United States.

The bad news is that DARE has been scorned by scientists for years for
being ineffective. The "just say no" approach that emerged in the 1980s
just doesn't do the job, researchers say. Some studies show drug use is as
prevalent in schools where DARE is taught as in schools where it isn't. The
U.S. Department of Education told schools to stop spending money on the
program.

To be fair, the DARE curriculum has been updated over the years to respond
to criticisms, and certain police officers -- who teach the DARE curriculum
- -- have no doubt been quite effective in reaching some kids.

But to get DARE back into schools where it has been dropped, the program
needs improvedcredibility.

Fortunately, DARE announced last month that it is taking a new approach.

A new and improved DARE is being created at the University of Akron with a
$13.7 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The new model
will be tried out over the next five years on 50,000 kids in six cities and
their suburbs, possibly including San Francisco and the Bay Area.

There has been a good deal of research on drug use prevention, and there
are techniques known to be most effective in preventing teen-agers from
using drugs.

Researchers say DARE must be more interactive, with role-playing and
discussion instead of lectures. And, it should target seventh- and
ninth-graders instead of fifth-graders, reaching students at times of
transition when the pressure to try drugs is greatest.

Preventing teen-agers from using drugs is a complex process.

Prevention programs must do what DARE has been doing -- ask students to say
"no" and try to boost their self-esteem.

They also must teach teens that using drugs interferes with their desired
lifestyles. That taking drugs may seem like a way to feel good, but can
actually make you feel sick and act stupid.

Programs must develop teens' decision-making skills, fine tune their
awareness of the power of media and advertising, and challenge students'
assumptions that drug use is prevalent among their peers.

The tough thing about preventing teens from using drugs is that one
approach won't work for every student. The source of "risk factors," which
can include ineffective parenting, low achievement in school and poor
social coping skills, emerge on the individual, family, peer and community
levels.

Prevention programs must be age-appropriate, often more individualized and
culturally specific. The approach used in seventh grade won't work in ninth
grade. Something that works in East Oakland may not work in Atherton.

This is something bottling companies and advertisers have always known.

Recreating the DARE model is a smart thing to do. With a scientific basis,
buy-in by police and reinvestment by schools, DARE can enter this
millennium with a much better chance of actually helping kids cope with the
pressures that lead to drug use and abuse.