D.A.R.E. DOESN'T WORK, STUDY FINDS

Students in Program Used Same Amount of Drugs as Others

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., March 18 The D.A.R.E. anti-drug program may be a good
idea gone bad. A new study concludes that the program is not working and, in
fact, may actually be hurting drug-abuse prevention efforts in some
communities. The six-year study followed 1,800 Illinois kids from fifth
grade through high school.

FOR MORE THAN 23 million children, 80 percent of America's schools, the
nation's antidrug mantra is a pledge to lead a drug-free life. That pledge
comes from a program called D.A.R.E., which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance
Education.

At McDougle Elementary School, in the Carrboro School district of Chapel
Hill, N.C., D.A.R.E. is one of the favorite subjects among fifth-graders.

Though popular, Chapel Hill is thinking about dropping the class. The body
of research about D.A.R.E. says that it has no long-term effect for
drug-abuse prevention, said Susan Spalt, the health director for the
Carrboro School District.In the most comprehensive study yet on D.A.R.E.,
researchers followed 1,800 students using techniques endorsed by D.A.R.E.
itself. Its author concluded that D.A.R.E. is a a waste of money - $220
million in tax money and donations last year alone with no beneficial effect
on drug use.

It hurts me to sit here and tell you that D.A.R.E. does not work, said
Dennis Rosenbaum, the author and head of the Criminal Justice Department at
the University of Illinois. But it's time for us to go back to the drawing
board and figure out how it can be improved or what better ways we can spend
our money on drug education in this country.

Rosenbaum's six-year study finds that kids in the D.A.R.E. program used the
same amount of drugs as others. Perhaps the researchers most surprising
conclusion: D.A.R.E. actually appears to have an ôadverseö effect on drug
activity in suburban communities.

Kids in the suburbs who were exposed to the D.A.R.E. program, who
participated in D.A.R.E., actually had significantly higher levels of drug
use than suburban kids who did not get the D.A.R.E. program, said Rosenbaum.
This was very disturbing to us.

It's a mystery the researchers say requires further study.

Bill Alden, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement agent and spokesman for D.A.R.E.,
calls the study ôoutrageous.ö NBC News provided him with a copy and asked
him about its findings.

I don't have an answer, he said.

For its part, D.A.R.E. embraces one study from Ohio State University that
says the program does work, if students are given additional anti-drug
classes through high school. But an overwhelming majority of students do not
take such classes and a dozen other studies have flatly concluded that
D.A.R.E. does not deliver on its promise to teach kids to resist drugs.

D.A.R.E. officials are pushing to add more programs in junior high and high
schools.

It's not that D.A.R.E. doesn't work, said Bill Alden, deputy director of
D.A.R.E. America. D.A.R.E. does work. But it dissipates. It erodes. What has
to happen ... there has to be more, not less.

Alden said D.A.R.E. is a popular program. We've got thousands and thousands
of principals, he said. Millions of parents say, D.A.R.E. made a difference
in my child's life.

But the two key federal agencies evaluating drug abuse programs do not
recommend D.A.R.E. on their lists of acceptable programs, leaving school
districts like Chapel Hill with a difficult choice.