AGAINST THE TIDE OF DARE'S MISINFORMATION

I heard it for the first time in first grade and then again every
single year from the fourth grade to the end of high school: "Drugs
are bad. Drugs are addictive and destroy your life. Drugs will kill you."

Considering that this message came from my kindly neighborhood police
officer, the guidance counselor with the never-ending supply of
Tootsie Roll Pops and eventually my high school's endearingly
dim-witted football coach, I was at first inclined to believe their
obviously well-intentioned warnings. But over time, just like
thousands of kids who have endured the DARE program, my peers and I
became jaded and cynical.

As much as William Bennett and the Moral Majority would like to blame
the "immoral" and "subversive" media such as Dr. Dre's "The Chronic"
or the Macintosh shareware classic "Happy-weed" for tempting
corruptible children, the truth is that everyone I knew growing up
spent far more time playing the video game "NARC," a violent
shoot-'em-up in which Drug Enforcement Administration agents
mercilessly slaughter evil drug dealers and addicts with a formidable
array of high-tech weaponry. For kids who grew up watching idols like
Kurt Cobain self-destruct, drugs were hardly exciting or glamorous.

No, what turned the kids I knew against DARE was the blatant
inconsistency of the (mis)information it provided. Depending on what
pamphlet you read, one "marijuana cigarette" caused the equivalent
lung damage of three normal cigarettes or an entire pack. Psychedelic
mushrooms killed either 500 or 5,000 people per year. Cocaine caused
instant heart attacks in one out of a hundred users or one out of a
thousand. And for all the talk of marijuana as the direct gateway to
amotivation, failure and eventual hellfire, many of our parents had
indulged in the past without destroying their lives or careers. For
most kids, I think, it seemed ridiculous to respect warnings from an
organization with such a clear lack of respect for its audience's intelligence.

Such misinformation, by this point, isn't really any one person's
fault. Over the last century, virtually all government information
about drugs has been manipulated by some agenda. At first, much of it
was racially motivated, as opium was associated with Chinese and
marijuana with blacks and Hispanics. In later years, the deception
continued as increasingly powerful drug czars sought to consolidate
their influence and secure ever-greater funding for their agencies.
Now, staying "tough" on drugs using tactics including misinformation
is an easy way for politicians to gain political capital.

What we have now is a vacuum of readily available truthful
information about drugs, at least for those who don't want to conduct
their own extensive research online. In the absence of education that
could encourage safety, I have witnessed some truly dangerous
drug-related activity: smokers wrecking their constitutions by
single-handedly burning through ounces of marijuana in a matter of
weeks; students snorting Adderall so that they can do their homework
after an evening of using downers; even people assaulting their
livers by washing down prescription painkillers with copious amounts
of alcohol. Since prohibition is clearly impossible, harm reduction
should be the goal. It is clear that students need an objective,
trustworthy and confidential source for factual information about
drugs and drug safety.

Last year, the Drug Resource Center opened as a joint project between
Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Department of Health
Education. Its mission is to provide unbiased and truthful
information about drug use, including the dangers thereof. The DRC's
volunteers are trained to direct visitors to the best sources of
information so as to reduce harm. A more informed student body will
be a safer one.

I encourage all students to visit the DRC, regardless of their
personal stance regarding drugs - knowledge is power, and power is safety.