Study finds no evidence it cuts drug use in kids

B7 By V. Dion Haynes

LOS ANGELES Despite the good intentions of the popular Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program, research indicates that the efforts do not
keep kids off drugs.

For more than 15 years, the program, better known as DARE, has sent
uniformed police officers into schools, warning about the dangers of
drugs while instructing students on how to resist them. The pro gram
serves about 25 million child ren in 8,000 communities.

09But Berkeley researchers, who have conducted a longterm study on
various drugawareness programs for the state Department of Education,
have concluded that the Los Angeles based DARE pro gram has been
ineffective in reducing drug use among schoolchildren.

09Similar conclusions have been reached by academicians who studied DARE
students in other parts of th6 country.

09The various studies are to be included in a U.S. Department of Justice
report being published this week called "Preventing Crime What Works,
What Doesn t, What's Most Promising."

09Besides drugawareness programs, the Justice Department report questions
the effectiveness of some other youthoriented efforts, including
midnight basketball and military style boot camps for youth offenders.

_Kids want open, honest dialogue_

09Published last month, the California study, called "Students
and Substances: Social Power in Drug Education," concludes that DARE and
the state Department of Education's other drugawareness programs falled
in their mission to keep students off drugs as they reached tneir teenage
years.

09In a survey of 5,000 students, 40 percent of the respondents said they
were not at all influenced by educators in the drugprevention programs.
And 70 percent of the students said they had a neutral or negativ~
attitude toward the educators.

Researchers said the "Just Say No" theme of DARE did not promote open,
honest discussion among students, who often get conflicting messages
about drugs in their communities.

09The researchers noted figures that showed the use of certain drugs among
teens was increasing. For instance, a recent University of Michigan study
showed that among eighthgraders' marijuana use had ~pled from 6 percent
to 18 percent letween 1991 to 1996.

09"There is not a scientifically sound study that shows DARE prevents kids
from using drugs," said Joel Brown, director of Educational Research
Consultants, a Berkeleybased firm that conducted the threeyear study
for the state Ecucation Department.

_Other reports fault DARE_

09Brown's findings are similar to those in several other
studies.

For example, in 1991, a report prepared by the Chapel Hill, N.C. based
Triangle Research Institute for the U.S. Justice Department concluded
that DARE was largely unsuccessful in preventing drug use among
youngsters, despite the program's popularity.

09Officials at DARE America and state Department of Education, however,
strongly dispute Brown's contentions.

09Ralph Lochridge, spokesman for DARE, said numerous studies, including
one released two years ago by Ohio State University, showedthat DARE was
succeeding in getting kids to resist drugs over the short term. The
failure results from a iack of involvement among parents and community
groups to reinforce what DARE is teaching, he said, 09"DARE is not a magic
bullet it's just one little piece," Lochridge said.