STUDY: DARE USED OFTEN, DOES LITTLE

Most public schools continue to use taxpayer-funded drug-prevention programs
that have proven to be largely ineffective in reducing drug use among
students, according to a study released on Monday.

Programs like DARE - or Drug Awareness and Resistance Education - that send
police officers into schools to lecture students are used in eight in ten
schools despite studies showing they do little to combat drug use,
researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill said.

The U.S. Department of Education spent $566 million - or about $5 per child
- - on drug prevention programs last year. Under a policy adopted in 1998,
schools will have to prove the programs have been effective in reducing drug
use.

But in recent surveys, about half of the seniors say they drink, while a
third say they have been intoxicated and nearly one in four say they have
smoked marijuana.