IF YOU WANT TO KEEP KIDS OFF OF DRUGS, DARE ISN'T THE BEST WAY

Alexander School Board chair David Kasler's support for Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (DARE) is misguided.

Good intentions are no substitute for effective anti-drug education. Every
independent, methodologically sound evaluation of DARE has found the
program to be ineffective or counterproductive. The scare tactics used do
more harm than good.

Students who realize they've been lied to about marijuana often 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 be effective, 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.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

www.csdp.org

Washington, DC 20012