DARE PROGRAM DANGEROUSLY MISLEADING FOR KIDS

The importance of parental involvement in reducing adolescent drug
use cannot be overstated. School-based extracurricular activities
also have been shown to reduce use.

They keep kids busy during the hours they're most likely to get into
trouble. In order for drug prevention efforts to effectively reduce
harm, they must be reality-based. Parents often overlook the most
popular drug and the one most closely associated with violent
behavior. That drug is alcohol and it takes far more lives each year
than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be legal, but it's still
the number one drug problem.

For decades, school-based drug prevention efforts have been dominated
by sensationalist programs like Drug Abuse Resistance Education
(DARE). Good intentions are no substitute for effective drug
education. Independent evaluations of DARE have found the program to
be either ineffective or counterproductive. The scare tactics used do
more harm than good. Students who realize they've been lied to about
marijuana may make the mistake of assuming that harder drugs like
methamphetamine are relatively harmless as well. This is a recipe for
disaster. Drug education programs must be reality-based or they may
backfire when kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among their peers.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy