DARE MEANS WELL BUT DOES NOT SUCCEED

It is often said that we fear what we don't understand. Drugs are no
exception.

That is why I would like to write about a well-intentioned but misguided
program known as DARE.

After a decade of schools trying this program, the drug situation has
exponentially gotten worse.

The drug of choice for teens has gone from cocaine to speed to heroin.
Before two years of DARE my fourth grade class regarded drugs as evil
incarnate.

The only knowledge we had about them was in relation to the people whose
lives had been destroyed by them.

Soon after "graduating" from DARE we began to see the warnings were so
overblown that we dismissed them as false. We had more curiosity about
drugs, which led many of us to try them for ourselves.

Kids should have a paralyzing fear of drugs. DARE robs them of that.

John Gerke

Concord