DON'T DARE

Time To 'Just Say No' To Expensive, Ineffective Dare Program

It seemed like a good idea: get the message early on to young people
that illegal drugs are dangerous and that they should resist pressure
from peers to try them. A simple slogan, "Just Say No," would help
give them the resolve to shun mind-altering substances that could
cause addiction and lead to a criminal record and a bitter future. On
all accounts, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, which
millions of American schoolchildren have been exposed to over the
past two decades, should have been a success.

It wasn't. For years naysayers have questioned how well the
school-based DARE program really worked and, indeed, research study
after study showed the program obtained poor long-term results.
Earlier this month, a National Academy of Sciences study showed DARE
did not affect children's drug use behavior or attitude about drugs,
nor did it instill resistance to peer pressure or boost self-esteem.

The program has lasted so long because there has been no political
will to end it, because it got police to interact positively with
children and because it felt good -- like the nation was doing
something to fight rampant narcotics use by young people.

But the failed tax-supported national drug-prevention program is not
cheap. DARE has cost Houston taxpayers alone close to $4 million
annually for salaries and benefits for the police officers who teach
the program and for paraphernalia like bumper stickers, T-shirts and
pencils emblazoned with anti-drug messages.

Now, DARE leaders themselves are admitting that the program is
ineffective. Program officials are launching a redesigned
drug-prevention push that gets away from the overly simplistic
just-say-no approach in favor of one that teaches young people how to
make good decisions and avoid and diffuse violent behavior and
situations.

That's fine, but taxpayers ought to insist that the plug be pulled on
DARE unless a show of success can be made.