DARE TO THINK DIFFERENTLY

Re: It's tough to be a kid these days (editorial, June 10).

The DARE program has been around for more than 20 years and in that
time, drug use among Canadian teens has nearly quadrupled. I think
it is because DARE relies heavily on fear-mongering and
exaggerations rather than science and fact.

Sending in cops to teach kids about drugs is like sending in a
priest to teach them about sex; "Just don't do it, mister, or you'll
be in big trouble."

One thing that really bothers me is the way police exaggerate and
misrepresent the so-called dangers of marijuana use and downplay
it's many documented medical applications (for example, recent
science out of Germany shows how cannabinoids stimulate the
body's production of TIMP-1, which helps healthy cells
resist cancer invasion.

www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20071226/pot-slows-cancer-in-test-tube)

The DARE approach fosters discrimination against marijuana users,
even federally licensed medical marijuana users like me and my wife.
In a just society, this sort of government-sponsored hate crime
wouldn't be allowed.

Even the dullest kids catch on quickly that it is the police and
their prohibition which has made drugs of all kinds so readily
available in their schools, so it is little wonder that so many of
them lose all respect for authority.

For those keen on teaching kids about drugs - without all the
hyperbole, threats, sloganeering, and bald-faced lies of the
standard "education" program, check out the Educators for Sensible
Drug Policy website at www.efsdp.org, or the Canadian Students
for Sensible Drug Policy website at www.cssdp-ecprd.ca.

Russell Barth

Nepean, Ont.