STUDY CHALLENGES DARE PROGRAM

Wichita and Sedgwick County officers are strongly committed to the anti-drug
program.

Eagle Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- Before police in Lexington, Mass., killed the DARE drug
prevention program for the Boston suburb's middle and high schools last
year, they asked the organization's national office about localizing the
curriculum with ideas from the PTA, area educators and their own officers.
Their overture was hastily rebuffed.

"They told us, 'You either teach our lesson plan and our curriculum or you
risk being decertified,' " police Lt. Steve Corr said. "The officers came to
me and said they weren't happy with the curriculum and really didn't want to
teach it."

Although teen drug use remains much higher than it was at its low in 1991
and 1992, Lexington isn't alone in abandoning the nation's most popular
anti-drug program for youth, which operates in 49 countries and all 50
states.

Police departments in Seattle, Omaha, Lawrence and Lexington, Mass., and
other cities also have dropped the program, either because they lack the
necessary personnel or because there is an ongoing debate about whether
DARE -- Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- is effective in curbing youthful
drug use.

In the latest study, researchers at the University of Kentucky compared
cigarette, marijuana and alcohol use among 20-year-olds who had taken the
17-week DARE course in elementary school to that of young people who had
traditional drug education in health classes. The study, published in the
August issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, found
both groups used drugs at about the same rate.

"And any changes in attitude are usually gone in about a year," said the
study's author, Donald Lynam, the Kentucky psychologist who conducted the
study.

Glenn Levant, the president and founding director of DARE America, the
nonprofit organization that manages the program, called the Kentucky report
"academic fraud" because the students surveyed had taken only the elementary
portion of the course back in 1987.

"The program is designed to be reinforced at other grade levels," Levant
said. "It's only common sense that memory fades with time."

In Wichita and Sedgwick County, law enforcement officers said they were
committed to continuing the anti-drug program in local schools.

"We feel strongly about the DARE program," said Sheriff's Sgt. Terrilee
Jones, who oversees the crime prevention office within the sheriff's
department.

Wichita police Lt. Mark Princ, supervisor of the community affairs section
within the department, said he is not aware of any talk about cutting the
program.

"Oh, heavens no," he said. "As far as I know, it is on full-scale just as it
always has been."

Princ said he is skeptical of statistical studies that show DARE has little
effect on students. He said there is no way to know what positive effect the
program has on students in ways that cannot be counted, such as a lasting
friendship with an officer.

"How do you measure that type of value?" Princ said. "There are no numbers
for that."

Founded in Los Angeles in 1983, DARE brings local law enforcement officers
into elementary, middle and high schools to encourage youngsters to avoid
illicit drugs. After-school and parental curriculums are also available.
About 8,000 U.S. law enforcement agencies teach the courses in 80 percent of
U.S. school systems. Most of the program's $212 million annual budget comes
from private donations and corporate sponsorships. Federal grants provide
about $1.75 million.

Sending a strong zero-tolerance message, DARE officers use a standardized
curriculum that includes instructional films, role-playing, peer-led
sessions and a variety of problem solving, conflict management and violence
prevention techniques to teach youngsters about the immediate consequences
and long-term effects of illegal drug use.

Contributing: Robert Short of the Eagle