EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOLS' DRUG PROGRAM QUESTIONED

By now, the slogan is nearly a cultural mantra: "D.A.R.E. to keep kids off
drugs." But is the nation's best-known drug education program a lasting
deterrent or merely a feel-good exercise with temporary benefits?

In Miami-Dade County, the D.A.R.E program has deep roots and a big budget.
The $2.3 million effort, coordinated by police and schools, graduated a
record 21,000 students this school year. In Broward, about 17,000 students
graduate annually.

But a recent study from the University of Kentucky asserts D.A.R.E. -- Drug
Abuse Resistance Education -- neither curbs the use of drugs nor changes
attitudes toward drugs. It is the latest analysis to question the program's
effectiveness.

"People like D.A.R.E., kids like D.A.R.E., police like D.A.R.E., teachers
like D.A.R.E.," said Donald Lynam, a University of Kentucky psychology
professor and a primary author of the study. "But we're not showing that
it's effective."

The study, which 10 years ago began tracking 1,000 Kentucky sixth-graders
who completed the program, showed D.A.R.E. had little effect on students'
use and attitudes toward cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, other illicit
drugs and peer-pressure resistance, Lynam said. The study was funded by
grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National
Institutes of Health.

But local D.A.R.E. advocates, aware that the Kentucky study and others like
it have cast doubt on D.A.R.E programs, were quick to defend their efforts.

"The studies I've read have seen a significant decrease in drug use and
risky behavior and also show a positive interaction between police officers
and the students," said Miami-Dade Police Maj. James DiBernardo, whose
officers teach the DARE program in local schools.

D.A.R.E., launched in 1983 in Los Angeles, followed First Lady Nancy
Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. Since then, 26 million children
have enrolled nationwide. Presidents have declared National D.A.R.E. Days
yearly since 1988.

In a typical 17-week program, a uniformed police officer visits a school to
teach students the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. The program
focuses on strategies for resisting and promotes self-esteem.

But the Kentucky study showed a drop in the students' self-esteem.
Researchers were unable to explain why the sixth-graders who attended
D.A.R.E. had lower confidence levels at age 20 than their colleagues who
heard anti-drug messages in health classes.

Relationship stressed

Sandy Baker Hoover, a guidance counselor at Bay Harbor Elementary, says the
relationship that develops between the police officer and the children is
more important than program content.

"I haven't done a study, but I know that years later, children still come
by and talk to the police officer," Hoover said.

According to DiBernardo -- who supervises the 25 full-time Miami-Dade
Police officers and three sergeants who teach D.A.R.E. programs in 120
elementary and 18 middle schools -- a 1996 review of state programs showed
program participants used less hard-core drugs, such as cocaine and LSD.
The study compared 356 students who enrolled in D.A.R.E to 264 students who
did not.

A summary of the study suggested D.A.R.E particularly discouraged teenage
boys from using drugs. It also suggested short-term increases in
self-esteem, resistance to peer pressure, bonding with police and decreased
drug use.

A similar study of more than 3,000 Ohio 11th-graders found kids who
attended D.A.R.E. in elementary school and again later were 50 percent less
likely to abuse alcohol and drugs.

Rethinking efforts

But research questioning D.A.R.E's effectiveness has prompted some cities
to rethink their efforts. In Quincy, Mass., for example, a school principal
cut the program and used the money to train teachers and parents to talk to
teens about drug use.

So why does D.A.R.E. continue to be popular in most cities? The Kentucky
study says teaching alcohol and drug abstinence is a widely accepted approach.

"A second possible explanation for the popularity of such programs," the
study said, "is that they appear to work. . . . Adults may believe that
drug use among adolescents is much more frequent than it actually is."

Erica Palm, 12, a rising seventh-grader at North Dade Middle, took the
D.A.R.E. program two years ago.

"I already knew drugs and alcohol were bad, but it just expanded my
learning," Erica said. "They told us why they were bad and they told us why
you're not supposed to do them."

Erica was told by her parents not to use drugs, but her mother said she
likes D.A.R.E. as reinforcement. "Sometimes it's good for children to hear
it from someone other than their parents," Julie Palm said.

Broward School Board Chairwoman Lois Wexler said the program's popularity
- -- along with the fact that law enforcement and government grants pay for
it -- make it unlikely that D.A.R.E. would be abandoned.

Seeking `a continuum'

But Wexler said she would like to see the program's messages reinforced
more comprehensively in middle and high school. While fifth-graders spend
sixteen weeks in D.A.R.E., drug use is only one of many issues discussed in
physical education and health classes in secondary schools.

"The problem is that there isn't a continuum," Wexler said. "The ball is
being dropped in the higher grades."

Broward Sheriff's Office Lt. John Nesteruk said he's heard about the
contradictory studies but remains convinced of D.A.R.E's strengths.

"All the parents swear by it, and I see kids, years after the program,
still wearing their D.A.R.E. shirts," Nesteruk said. "It's very difficult
to measure the outcomes of a prevention program because of differences in
opinions, how it's instructed and the amount of community support.

"To do nothing at all would be defeatist," he said.

Herald staff writer Beth Reinhard contributed to this report.