DARE DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD

Good intentions are no substitute for effective drug education.
Independent evaluations of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (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.

The importance of parental involvement in reducing drug use cannot be
overstated. School-based extracurricular activities have also been
shown to reduce drug use. They keep kids busy during the hours
they're most likely to get into trouble.

In order for drug education to effectively reduce harm, it has to be
credible. The most popular recreational drug and the one most closely
associated with violent behavior is often overlooked. 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.

The following U.S. Government Accounting Office report confirms my
claims regarding DARE: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03172r.pdf

Sincerely,

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, DC