DRUGS 101

Your Kids And Drugs: What Works And What Doesn't In Drug Ed And Why
Do Some Towns Refuse To Let The DARE Program Go

First Of A Two-Part Series

At the height of its popularity, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education
program was in 80 percent of American schools, and federal and state
officials were shoveling millions of dollars into the initiative with
the hope of convincing kids to "just say no." The problem is, too
many kids didn't say no.

Today, nearly a quarter century after DARE first took its antidrug
message to schoolchildren, federal officials have declared it
ineffective and clamped down on the use of government grants to pay
for it. But despite the evaporation of financial support and a chorus
of criticism in recent years, half of South Shore school districts
still invite police departments in to teach DARE.

Are their efforts worthwhile, or a waste of time? While there are no
clear-cut answers, officers who champion DARE's message and at least
some experts who have studied the program say police and schools may
be right not to simply write DARE off.

"We're not sure we can identify a better program," said Carol Weiss,
a professor of education research at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education. "What people seem to be saying now is (drug education)
takes more than one semester in school. It takes a lot of enrichment
reinforcement, and it takes community support. That was one of the
strengths of DARE. It did seem to have a lot of community support."

The New DARE

Inside the Cushing Elementary School in Scituate, officer Domenic
D'Arcangelo gets a group of sixth-graders giggling with stories about
how he's seen grown men wet themselves while drunk.

"It's sick," he tells the kids. "It's nuts. You just do stuff you
wouldn't believe." In between the gross-out stories and sometimes
corny jokes, D'Arcangelo asks the students to offer their own reasons
why tobacco, alcohol and marijuana are bad news.

"Lung cancer," one boy says of cigarettes. "Yellow teeth and bad
breath," a girl chimes in. The DARE being taught in schools today is
not the same program that was first launched in Los Angeles in 1983.

To be certain, uniformed police officers still encourage students to
"DARE to resist drugs and violence," and graduates continue to sport
those ubiquitous T-shirts with the iconic DARE logo.

Faced with a slew of research and reports that found students who
completed DARE were just as likely to dabble in drugs as those who
did not, the organization's national leaders revamped and updated the
curriculum in recent years. The new program ditches the approach of
having officers lecture kids - and sometimes scare them - with
stories about the dangers of drugs. Instead, officers are trained to
act as "coaches" with students to develop "research-based refusal
strategies," according to the organization.

"What I like about it is it makes the kids more involved, makes them
think a lot more about how they will handle situations," said Mike
Peraino, who as a patrolman was the DARE officer in Hingham for 12
years until being promoted to sergeant. "A lot of the workbook has
them put in situations they're probably going to be in in the next years."

Whether the changes translate into less drug use is being reviewed.
The new program is in the final year of a five-year evaluation by
researchers at the University of Akron, who are following 19,000 high
school and middle school students from six cities and monitoring
their drug use. The review is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, a private organization aimed at improving health and health care.

Researchers have thus far reported some promising findings about the
new middle and high school DARE curriculum, called "Take Charge of
Your Life." "

At this stage, researchers observed current evidence that the new
Take Charge of Your Life program is effective in reaching those
adolescents who are at elevated risk for substance use," according to
a progress report released by the Akron researchers in January.
"Furthermore, the researchers concluded that Take Charge of Your Life
works as well as any other effective school-based prevention program."

Making Inroads

While drug education is DARE's primary goal, police say that is just
part of why they keep the program going.

For many departments, it's also a way to make inroads with kids.

"By providing DARE, it's not only giving kids the opportunity to
learn about the ills of substance abuse, it also gives them the
opportunity to see officers in a role that isn't enforcement,"
Carver Police Chief Arthur Parker said. "They realize the officer
can be a resource ... and hopefully it prevents you from doing enforcement."

To that end, many DARE officers do much more than show up at school,
teach a class and head back to the department.

Take Scituate's D'Arcangelo. On a recent weekday afternoon, he could
be found in the gym at Gates Intermediate School as a rowdy group of
boys raced by and basketballs flew through the air. D'Arcangelo
started the open gym program more than a decade ago. Twice a week, as
many as 150 students head there to spend a few hours after school. On
other days, D'Arcangelo might be riding bikes with kids or acting as
the deejay at a school dance.

And he uses some of the money raised for DARE to help fund
after-school activities, with the idea that kids with hobbies are
less likely to get mixed up with drugs. In the past, that has meant
buying copies of "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul" for a girls'
club and helping to finance a makeshift recording studio for
aspiring musicians.

"That's what a DARE officer has to do," said D'Arcangelo, who has
filled the role in Scituate for 17 years. "You have to be a role
model to the kids. You also have to relate to them. You have to be
willing to jump on a drum set or pound nails with them."

Tough Times

Such positive stories notwithstanding, there is no question DARE has
gone through some tough times.

The federal government has become much more strict in allowing Safe
and Drug-Free Schools grant money - budgeted at $729.5 million this
year - to be used for DARE. Schools must receive a waiver, and even
then the money can only be used temporarily while evaluation data on
DARE is collected. In addition to a lack of federal support, the
enthusiasm of Massachusetts leaders has waned.

In 2002, the state allocated $4.3 million for DARE. Today there is no
state money available.

As a result, the number of Massachusetts communities with active DARE
programs dwindled from 328 a few years ago to about 140 today,
according to Domenic DiNatale, executive director of DARE Massachusetts.

Among the local communities that have eliminated DARE are Norwell,
Milton, Holbrook, Randolph and Weymouth.

In Norwell's case, the town uses LifeSkills Training, a different
antidrug program taught cooperatively by teachers and police. Norwell
schools Superintendent Donald Beaudette said that decision was
driven, in part, by questions about DARE's effectiveness.

Those communities that have kept DARE alive either absorb the costs
in their budgets or rely on residents and businesses to chip in.

Kingston, for example, spent about $10,000 on DARE for the budget
year that ended July 1, 2005, all of which was allocated by town
meeting. Hingham spent about $13,000 during the same time, though its
money was mostly raised through fundraisers. Hanson police collected
and spent about $20,000 worth of donations for DARE, according to
the town accountant's office. Whether the changes being made to DARE
on a national level will help it rebound is unclear.

For their part, local DARE officers say they're determined to keep
the program going.

"I wouldn't be putting my heart and soul into it the way I do if it
wasn't effective," Hanover DARE officer Michael McKeever said.

The program DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, can be
administered in any grade, though most schools focus on elementary
school and middle school. The core elementary school program is
designed for fifth-or sixth-graders. The program, which once lasted
17 weeks, has been pared down to 10 weeks and addresses alcohol,
tobacco, marijuana and inhalants. One section of the curriculum
focuses on decision-making skills, such as what to do when invited to
a friend's house when no parents will be home, or how to respond
when offered a cigarette. Another section focuses on friendships and
peer pressure.

The DARE middle school curriculum was recently revamped and is in the
process of being evaluated by researchers at the University of Akron.
The 10-week program, called Take Charge of Your Life, deals with
topics such as the influence of the media and how the brain works.
Students are asked to think about how they would deal with several
real-life scenarios about drug use and drinking.

Exactly what is taught when varies from town to town. Hanson, for
example, uses the DARE program in second and sixth grades, then
touches on it again in eighth grade. In sixth grade, where DARE
officer Rick Nawazelski spends the bulk of his time, the program
typically runs 16 or 17 weeks, instead of the 10 outlined in the
national curriculum. Hingham DARE officer Robert Ramsey also expands
on the sixth-grade curriculum, spending about 20 weeks with kids. He
touches on inhalants, cocaine and methamphetamine, but also
addresses topics such as Internet safety and cyber bullying. Ramsey
also teaches three-day drug education classes to seventh- and
eighth-graders once each term and works with high school sophomores a
few days each year.

What The Critics Are Saying About The DARE Program

DARE has come under fire in the past from researchers who said it was
ineffective in decreasing drug use among youth.

The program has since been overhauled, and a study of the new
curriculum's effectiveness is now under way.

The following is a sampling of past criticisms:

- -- The General Accounting Office: "The GAO reviewed six long-term
evaluations of DARE and found "no significant differences in illicit
drug use between students who received DARE in the fifth or sixth
grade (the intervention group) and students who did not (the
control group)," according to a 2003 report by the federal agency.

- -- U.S. Surgeon General: Does Not Work: Drug Abuse Resistance
Education, or DARE ... "Overall, evidence on the effects of the
traditional DARE curriculum, which is implemented in grades 5 and 6,
shows that children who participate are as likely to use drugs as
those who do not participate," according to a 2001 report.
"However, some positive effects have been demonstrated regarding
attitudes toward police."

- -- University of Illinois at Chicago: A 1998 report by researchers
from the university found that DARE actually had some adverse
effects. "Suburban students who participated in DARE reported
significantly higher rates of drug use on all four composite indices
than suburban students who did not participate in the
program," according the report.