DARE REVAMP IS OVERDUE

Regarding Joseph Brown's thoughtful Feb. 18 column (Commentary section) on
drug prevention measures: Revamping the popular Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program is long overdue. 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 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 and police.

ROBERT SHARPE Washington, D.C.

The writer is program officer for The Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation.