DREAM PROGRAM HELPS COMBAT DRUG USE

Who says a DREAM can't come true?

Now in its fourth successful year, a "homegrown'' approach to teaching
children about the dangers of drug abuse is still going strong. The program
is called DREAM (Drug Resistance Education and Anger Management) which
replaced a better known but less effective national program called DARE
(Drug Abuse Resistance Education) in Sullivan County schools.

Sullivan County Sheriff Wayne Anderson says much of the credit for the
program goes to Maj. John Rose, who, four years ago, thought he had an idea
for a more effective program.

Rose says the main problem with the old DARE program was its lack of
flexibility. Rose says the old program gave no room for local agencies to
change the curriculum and DARE officers couldn't deviate from the lesson
plans.

The DREAM program, on the other hand, has such flexibility, says Rose. And
it has something else: anger management and conflict resolution, critical
components in helping to defuse potential school violence.

Four years ago, when the DREAM program was first introduced, Rose said the
goal of the program was to "prevent drug abuse and violence among children
and to foster a long-term and positive relationship between the youth of
Sullivan County, school officials and also the Sullivan County Sheriff's
office.''

That may have sounded like a very tall order at the time, but four years
later, the success of DREAM is evident. Indeed, the DARE program could
profit by imitating it.

Through various programs, the federal government has been trying to solve
the drug problem for years with relatively little to show for its efforts.
Even at the height of the War on Drugs in 1992, 32 percent of high school
seniors reported having used marijuana; nearly 10 percent had used
hallucinogens; and cocaine use (including "crack'' cocaine) was in the
double digits. The chief idea adults have had about discouraging juvenile
drug use has been to saturate the airwaves and the classrooms with tons of
anti-drug propaganda. But teens being teens, most of these initiatives,
including the old and, increasingly discredited DARE program, have been the
secret target of ridicule by youth for years. Many teens see these efforts
as little more than heavy-handed admonitions from hypocritical baby boomers
- - and there's more than a little truth in that view. The additional problem
with anti-drug messages and programs is that they haven't gotten to the root
of why teens take drugs. Like their older, drug-taking counterparts, the
answer lies in the moral or spiritual sphere. Some teens turn to drugs out
of boredom, to be sure, and others out of a sense of insecurity. But most
turn to drugs as an escape from lives that seem boring and empty. Behind
much of teenage drug use is an unhappy, empty heart that needs filling.
Beyond the sheer novelty of experimentation with "the forbidden,'' teens
turn to serious and prolonged drug use because they have not been provided
with the inner resources to face life with confidence and hope. They have
not been given a strong moral or spiritual foundation, and therefore feel
empty, confused or afraid. If a teen believes that his life has meaning,
regardless of how the world may look at any given moment, then he or she
will likely possess the strength to steer clear of drugs and alcohol. The
problem of teenage drug use is not, at base, a problem of education -
teenagers know the risks. What can make a real difference is parenting. A
parent needs to help his child discriminate between true happiness and mere
pleasure or excitement. That takes time and caring and commitment every day.