MCCAIN DEFENDS D.A.R.E. PROGRAM, SAYS IT WORKS FINE

D.A.R.E., the national anti-drug program, has been under attack by
researchers who say it doesn't work, which may have led to a newly designed
curriculum, but the head of the Cleveland program says the program he's
used for nearly seven years is the best thing yet for drug intervention.

In January 1996, Police Sgt. Mike McCain began giving lessons concerning
the dangers of drugs to children in elementary school classrooms throughout
the area.

Presently, using lesson plans from the D.A.R.E. program, McCain spends a
total of 37 weeks with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders inside local
schools for one-hour sessions.

"All I hear from the parents all the time is that it's the greatest thing
we've done," he said.

The University of Akron released Tuesday results of an evaluation of the
new D.A.R.E. seventh grade curriculum. The study involved over 15,000
students from 83 high schools and their 122 middle schools. Half of each
were randomly assigned the new program and the other half worked as a
control group for comparisons.

Their research showed improvements in students' decision-making skills,
drug refusal skills and beliefs that drug use is socially inappropriate.

"The positive findings are very encouraging," said Dr. Zili Sloboda, the
study's principal investigator. "Even more exciting is the fact that the
new curriculum is a first step in a process for preparing children for the
at-risk years."

A major component of the new curriculum is continuing to work with students
during their high school years - when they are more likely to experiment
with drugs.

McCain said that there has always been a high school component in the
Cleveland program, but because of time constraints, he focuses more on
early intervention in the elementary schools. He also spends a total of 20
hours with the seventh and eighth grades.

The new curriculum will be implemented in Cleveland School District in
2004, and since police officers will be placed full-time into schools
beginning on Nov. 7, high school students will be able to receive more
focus and McCain can work more with the elementary school children.

The D.A.R.E. program was begun by a group of police officers in Los Angeles
in 1983 to teach fifth-graders about the dangers of drugs. The program is
now implemented in 80 percent of school districts nationally.

Although some researchers see many positive aspects of D.A.R.E., many still
agree that the program doesn't work.

The University of North Carolina led a study last August finding that
several top anti-drug programs, including the original version of D.A.R.E.,
were either ineffective or not sufficiently tested.

Other researchers said that illegal drug use among teen-agers had remained
level or dropped slightly over the past several years.

"The majority of the people who want to get marijuana legalized say
D.A.R.E. doesn't work," McCain commented.

It's too early to know how significantly the new D.A.R.E. program will stop
drug-use among teens, Sloboda said. She suggested that a follow-up program
in high school will help them stay off drugs when pressures to experiment
climb.

Her study was financed by the Robert Wood Foundation and focused on
students in Detroit; Houston; Los Angeles; Newark, N.J.; New Orleans; and
St. Louis.