DARE PROGRAM IS COMMUNITY POLICING AT ITS BEST

RE: "IS DARE'S message to kids out of step?" by Doug Beazley, April 9. DARE
(Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is not about "just saying no" and
promoting the theory of "gateway" drugs. It's a 17-lesson life skills
program that covers personal safety, drug use, facing consequences and
understanding peer pressure and how to resist it.

There are aspects that address self-esteem, assertiveness, managing stress,
advertising influences, decision-making, positive alternatives and
resisting gang lures. High school students also come in to discuss the
trials and tribulations the younger students will face in junior and senior
high school. In 1995, Alberta Education endorsed the program for its Grade
6 health curriculum. Many of the dozens of DARE officers, including me,
donate their time to the program. The reasons for this are simple. It gets
us into an environment where we can build bridges with our youth and openly
discuss issues that are relevant in their world.

The DARE program is community policing at its best. From a personal
standpoint, it's also important to me that, as a police officer, I seek out
balance between the good and bad in our society. I am faced with a
continuous barrage of negative situations during the course of my regular
duties and it's refreshing to know that we have some tremendous kids
waiting in the wings to step in as good citizens. I view DARE as a
vaccination. It's designed to help children make decisions on realistic and
verifiable information that could seriously impact their future. People get
a flu shot every year as a precaution but there are no guarantees. Children
experiment with drugs for different reasons and some will go on to become
drug addicts.

This doesn't mean the program has failed. No program aimed at prevention is
foolproof. There are precious few comprehensive programs to help prepare
our young people for what can be a nasty world at times. DARE is one of
them and you only have to see the pride and excitement on the children's
faces at their graduation to know that it's making a difference.

Det. Rick Stewart,

Edmonton Police Service

(Thanks for writing.)