D.A.R.E. PROGRAM IS WASTE OF TAX MONEY

To the editor:

The annual D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) car show in
Torrington is the best in the area, with a huge, wonderful variety of
rare vehicles. Friday's cruise was a great success, judging by the
large crowds it drew. However, the D.A.R.E. program itself is a
dismal failure and a waste of tax money.

According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), the politically
popular program has had "no statistically significant long-term
effect on preventing youth illicit drug use." In addition, students
who participate in D.A.R.E. demonstrate "no significant
differences... [in] attitudes toward illicit drug use [or] resistance
to peer pressure" compared to children who had not been exposed to
the program." Such criticism has plagued D.A.R.E. throughout its
25-year history, yet police departments continue to promote the
failed program at the expense of effective law enforcement because it
is a cash cow, providing hundreds of millions of dollars in state and
federal aid, paid by taxpayers.

Torrington needs full-duty officers on the streets now to combat the
growing number of burglaries and other crimes the city is facing.
Yet, as reported in The Register Citizen ("More police needed to
combat rising crime in Torrington," Aug. 15, 2008) 22 percent of the
Torrington Police Department's 77 officers are not working at all,
for various reasons. Perhaps it's time Torrington Police Chief Robert
Milano dares to face the truth about D.A.R.E. by giving taxpayers a
break and putting police officers engaged in the sham program back
on the street where they can do some good.

LES WILSON

Torrington