THE REST OF THE STORY

Editor, Naples Daily News:

A recent letter to the editor by Robert Sharpe, program officer, Drug
Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C., was critical of the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (DARE) program calling DARE "sensationalist,"
"ineffective" and "counterproductive."

It is important for your readers to be aware that the Drug Policy Alliance
is an organization that seeks to legalize all currently banned drugs.

The Collier County community has not been immune from the effects of the
drugs that the Drug Policy Alliance seeks to legalize. We have experienced
the deaths of several young people who have experimented with these drugs.

Legalization would not have prevented these deaths; in fact, it would
probably have contributed to a higher body count and additional trauma to
our families.

There have been news stories regarding the ineffectiveness of the DARE
program that were later shown to be the result of fabrications created by a
now disgraced journalist for the New Republic and Rolling Stone magazines.

A story in the July 18 edition of The New York Times reported that the
National Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education conducted a study
of students in grades 6 to 12 and found that alcohol and tobacco use among
this group was the lowest it had been in 15 years. This study said that
student use of other drugs is at an eight-year low.

The war on drugs has not been won, but DARE and programs like it are having
a positive effect despite the efforts of others attempting to legitimize
illegal drug use.

Lt. James Hansen, Collier County Sheriff's Office Youth Relations Bureau