SCHOOL ANTI-DRUG PROGRAMS MAY NOT PASS FEDERAL MUSTER

CHAPEL HILL -(AP)- Public schools in 11 states use drug prevention programs
not proven by scientific study and could run afoul of federal law requiring
program assessment, a researcher said Monday.

In North Carolina alone, the report said, 95 percent of the state's school
districts surveyed were using the D.A.R.E. program.

"That was what was surprising to us, even though research shows there are
programs more effective," said Denise Hallfors, a research associate
professor of maternal and child health at UNC Chapel Hill.

Her research was funded by the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program of
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A study conducted last year at the University of Kentucky showed the
police-taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education curriculum had no effect on
whether students used drugs, alcohol or cigarettes. While D.A.R.E. has
critics, it also has high-profile supporters, like White House drug czar
Barry McCaffrey.

Hallfors said 81 school districts were surveyed in Arkansas, California,
Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, South
Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

A separate study of North Carolina school districts included 101 of the
state's 117 districts.

An N.C. education official said more effective programs, such as Life Skills
Training, are being used in more and more schools. D.A.R.E. is more
community-based and valuable in giving students a view of authority figures,
said Artie Kamiya, section chief for arts education and healthful living at
the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

Life Skills Training "relates to how to deal with peer pressure, dealing
with communications skills that allow you to express your feelings without
putting down a peer or a friend," he said.

Hallfors said part of the problem, according to drug abuse coordinators
surveyed, was a lack of time and money to study and implement other
programs.

D.A.R.E, Here's Looking at You and McGruff's Drug Prevention and Child
Protection programs are popular with the public but rely on lectures about
drug abuse, the researcher said. "It is not enough for a teacher, a parent
or a police officer to tell schoolchildren that drugs are bad for you, don't
use them," she said. "We have to use role-playing and skills learning to
help children negotiate with peers and make positive choices."

A 1998 federal policy requires that drug prevention programs be assessed for
effectiveness. Unwillingness to change to other programs could eventually
cost districts their share of the $566million in federal funds for the Safe
and Drug Free Schools Act, she said.