D.A.R.E. APPROACH TO DRUG EDUCATION INEFFECTIVE

Editor:

The graduation of 10-year-olds from a DARE program hardly merits a
celebration.

It's pretty easy to get a fifth-grader to sign a pledge, especially
when you're a uniformed police officer. But we should step back and
realize that many young kids have false visions of not only the future
but the present. Heck, many 10-year-olds still believe in Santa Claus
and the Tooth Fairy.

National studies demonstrate the DARE program's focus on inaccurate
information and its lumping of all drugs under one definition has the
long-term result of actually leading our kids to use drugs instead of
abstain. When a 10-year-old ages by four to six years and witnesses
other teens and adults using marijuana without adverse consequences,
they begin to view the DARE lessons in the same manner as previous
fairy tales taught to them by their parents and other adults.

They make the incorrect conclusion that all drug use must be benign
and low-risk and the results can be devastating.

Our kids deserve fact-based drug education from health professionals
instead of from officers in blue with guns at their side. It's no
wonder that school districts nationwide are dropping the DARE program
in preference to honest information that better protects and prepares
our children from the very real dangers of dangerous drugs.

STEPHEN HEATH

Clearwater, Fla.