EMBATTLED DARE MAINTAINS BACKING

Roger Brown has heard about the studies that suggest DARE, the country's
premier anti-drug program, is ineffective at curbing drug use among its
students.

But the Williams County sheriff's sergeant and longtime DARE officer has
heard from countless former students - on the streets, at the stores, and
even at the county fair.

They tell him they're still drug-free.

"Surveys [are] fine and dandy because that's what the bean counters want.
We can go out and get all the numbers and show all the drug addicts in the
world," he said. "But how do you measure that kid at the fair, the one who
didn't turn to drugs?" He's not alone.

Despite recent studies that suggest that the nonprofit Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program may be a feel-good but ineffective attempt at
keeping kids off drugs, most schools and police departments in Lucas County
endorse it to the tune of $96 a student.

Last year, seven law enforcement agencies in Lucas County spent at least
$306,408 in base salaries for their DARE officers to reach 3,187 students,
according to the state.

About half that cost was picked up through fees paid by the state from
drunken drivers reinstating their driver's licenses, said Stephanie
Beougher, a spokeswoman for the attorney general.

In the school year 2000-2001, the last for which statistics are available,
Michigan's DARE officers reached 93,642 students at 1,217 schools, said
Audrey Martini, coordinator of the DARE Michigan Training Center at
Michigan State University.

Founded in 1983 in Los Angeles, DARE America reaches students in 80 percent
of the nation's school districts. It also has reached 53 other countries,
according the organization's numbers. The lecture-series course begins with
a 16 or 17-week core curriculum in the fifth grade, and then can be
reinforced with refresher classes in middle or junior high and in high schools.

But behind the bumper stickers, T-shirts, and graduation ceremonies,
criticism of the program began as far back as 1994, when a federal study
found that DARE was popular, but had little lasting influence on a
student's choice to use drugs.

Chiefs and school officials have begun to doubt its effectiveness lately
too, dumping it from several large school districts across the country.

In June, Toledo police followed suit, reassigning its three DARE officers
to street duty. Chief Mike Navarre's decision met with near-tacit approval
from the school board and administration.

To be effective, Toledo police would have needed at least three times the
number of DARE officers - a near-impossibility with manpower and budget
issues, he said.

"DARE works in little communities," the chief asserted. "In bigger
communities, it doesn't."

Indeed, smaller departments had a lower student-DARE officer ratio and
those officers often revisited students in later grades in a type of
refresher course.

Consider that one full-time Ottawa Hills DARE officer was to reach about 80
pupils last year. In Toledo, each of the three DARE officers were to reach
465 students, the attorney general's office said.

DARE's supporters also note that for every survey that criticized the
program, there are reports that applaud it.

In a survey among Maumee students and parents in 1999, 98 percent of the
more than 600 sixth, eighth, and 11th-grade students "recommended" or
"strongly recommended" DARE continue in the schools. About 74 percent of
220 parents said they felt their children were less likely to abuse alcohol
or drugs because of DARE, Maumee police Chief Bob Zink said.

Moreover, DARE's critics seem to suggest that every student who tries drugs
is an indictment of the entire program, said Oregon police Officer Mike
Poddany.

"I don't think anybody is going to say you're going to do this program and
it's like a magic pill that will guarantee drug free or violence free
kids," he said. "That's not going to happen."