DARE WE HOPE?

It's big. It's popular. It doesn't work. New money and research may improve it.

Science may finally replace good intentions as the driving force behind
drug and alcohol education in the nation's schools. It's about time.

After years of suppressing criticism and resisting change, the omnipresent
Drug Abuse Resistance Education program - known better simply as DARE - is
rewriting its curriculum.

The changes promise a better chance for more kids to avoid the devastating
grip of drug abuse. Last year, research shows, one in four of America's
23.6 million teens had used illegal drugs in the previous 30 days.

DARE was founded in 1983 by the Los Angeles police department in the swell
of Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" movement. A tightly scripted, 17-week
lecture series, it features uniformed officers preaching the dangers of
drugs to fifth- and sixth-graders.

In just 15 years, DARE grew into a government-sanctioned monopoly serving
80 percent of U.S. schools and costing $750 million a year. It is
phenomenally popular with politicians, teachers and students. Police love
leading it.

Just one tiny little problem: DARE doesn't keep kids off drugs.

Study after study published in the 1990s found no discernible difference in
drug use between students who took DARE and students who didn't. DARE's
leaders vehemently defended their method and attacked their critics, but
eventually cities from Salt Lake City to Washington rejected it. Last year,
the Department of Education cut off funding.

Trolling for a drug education program to fund, the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation noted that DARE had done one thing very well: Establish a
network of relationships with the nation's schools. But that network needed
to deliver a fresh, more effective message.

When DARE was founded, the science of drug prevention was nascent, so
curriculum decisions followed adult common sense: Target young students,
before they were even tempted, with a staunch abstinence message. The
program didn't account for the emotional and physical transformations of
adolescence. It didn't consider peer pressure, rebellion against authority
or skeptical thinking. One size, one time does not fit all.

To address the shortcomings, Robert Wood Johnson awarded a $13.7 million
grant to the University of Akron, which designed a program based on the
"bible" of substance-abuse education issued by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse in 1997. The new method, which will be tested on 50,000 students
in six cities, urges students to question their assumptions and develop
their own strategies for refusing tobacco, alcohol or drugs. Taught in
grades seven and nine, it incorporates role playing, real-life scenarios,
and assertiveness training.

If rigorous assessment shows it's working, it could spread nationally.

For too long, DARE proceeded with little scrutiny, with false security
built upon a catch phrase. With its new partners, it vows now to search for
the right message and approach. It deserves a second chance, but one much
more closely monitored than the first.