D.A.R.E. TACTICS IRRITATE SHERIFFS

The national anti-drug program lets private vendors profit from sales
of its logo items.

Strapped for cash, the nation's most popular anti-drug education
program is allowing private businesses to sell T-shirts and other
items with its logo and keep 80 percent of the proceeds -- an
arrangement that has angered two Central Florida sheriffs.

Lake County Sheriff Chris Daniels and Seminole County Sheriff Don
Eslinger said they're worried people will think they are donating to
the local effort when they buy a D.A.R.E. item from a vendor set up
outside stores such as Wal-Mart, Lowe's or Winn-Dixie. The California
parent organization, D.A.R.E. America, pockets a 20 percent cut.

Many Central Florida law-enforcement agencies have deputies and
officers assigned to teach the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program
in schools.

Nationwide, kids in more than 300,000 classrooms in 10,000 communities
receive the message to stay off drugs.

"I believe in the D.A.R.E message, but I do object to a private
for-profit company making a profit off the hard work of our deputies,"
Daniels said Wednesday. "I've never gotten a check from D.A.R.E.
America. And 80 percent goes in some guy's pocket?"

Daniels learned about the practices of D.A.R.E America this month
after a resident complained about a person "aggressively" trying to
sell items at a Winn-Dixie store in Tavares.

Unbeknownst to Daniels, eight months earlier Eslinger was surprised to
run into a D.A.R.E. vendor as he left a Lowe's store in Seminole County.

The vendor told him the money raised through the sale of items keeps
D.A.R.E. programs in local classrooms.

"They didn't know who they were talking to," Eslinger said. "They were
providing misinformation."

Eslinger requested D.A.R.E. America to stop soliciting in his county.
But it wasn't until he spoke to D.A.R.E. America's president, Charlie
Parsons, in January that the organization agreed to do so.

An official with the National Sheriffs' Association said Eslinger is
the only sheriff to complain about the practice.

The Florida Sheriffs Association wasn't aware of the
problem.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary serves on D.A.R.E. America's
Operations Advisory Committee, according to the sheriff's Web site.

Beary was in Tallahassee on Wednesday and through a spokesman did not
respond to a request for an interview.

John Lindsay, D.A.R.E. America regional director for Florida, said the
nonprofit organization had no choice but to rely on private vendors to
generate cash because of a decline in federal grant funding and
private donations.

In 2002 and 2003, the federal government doled out $2.75 million each
year to D.A.R.E America.

The federal contribution plummeted to $1.2 million in 2004 and then
rose to $1.7 million in 2005.

This year, the federal government slashed funding to $900,000,
according to Lindsay.

The cash crunch prompted the decision to turn to private businesses to
shore up D.A.R.E. America's nearly $10 million annual budget.

"It's the reality of the fundraising world," Lindsay said. "It's a
need-based fundraising. It's dynamic and fluid. We are trying our best."

Last year, D.A.R.E. America's cut from the sale of merchandise through
the companies' sales totaled about $500,000, he said.

Private donation figures weren't available Wednesday.

Local law-enforcement agencies are required to purchase educational
materials and any other things they use to reinforce the just-say-no
message -- such as T-shirts, gym bags and water bottles -- directly
from D.A.R.E. America.

In Lake County, Daniels' agency does its own fundraising to pay for
everything except the salaries of deputies who teach the curriculum in
21 elementary schools.

The Seminole Sheriff's Office spends about $5,000 a year buying
supplies from D.A.R.E. America.

But Lindsay noted that the organization charges 89 cents for a book
that costs $2 to produce, and it helps in training some officers in
other states.

Daniels and Eslinger said they understand D.A.R.E. America's woes but
oppose the group's solution for generating money.

"Charge me more [for the books]. I'll pay it," Daniels said. "If I
can't pay for it, I'll find people in the community willing to donate."

D.A.R.E. America has an arrangement with two Orlando companies, Family
Promotions Inc. and Triple J. Promotions Inc., to sell merchandise in
Florida and several other states.

No one from the companies could be reached.

Daniels said there must be another alternative for the D.A.R.E.
program, which was created in 1983 and started in Lake County in 1990.

"We have managed to make it this far," the sheriff said. "I don't
understand why suddenly we have to get a for-profit company to help
us."