LOOK AGAIN AT DARE

The National Institutes of Health has added fuel to the controversy
about whether DARE programs are effective. Its findings are worth
taking seriously.

A panel commissioned by NIH to review studies of intervention programs
for young people age 12 to 17 concluded that Drug Abuse Resistance
Education programs don't work. The conclusion was part of a larger
negative verdict on "scare tactics" such as boot camps.

"Programs that seek to prevent violence through fear and tough
treatment do not work," the panel said, because they give teens who
are inclined toward violence a chance to learn more of the wrong
things from each other. The panel said the most effective programs
include intensive therapy and counseling for young people and their
families, preferably lasting at least a year.

As for the ineffective programs, "many communities are wasting a great
deal of money" on them, said the panel's chairman, Dr. Robert L.
Johnson of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

We are glad to see an institution with the stature of NIH take an
objective look at DARE and other popular intervention programs. It
makes no sense to rely on feel-good programs that don't work. At-risk
young people deserve better, and so do taxpayers.