T.O. IS A BETTER PLACE WITHOUT DARE

The city of Thousand Oaks is better off without the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (DARE) program. Good intentions are no
substitute for effective drug education. Independent evaluations of
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.

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 No. 1 drug problem.

Robert Sharpe, policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.