STUDY FAULTS SCHOOLS' ANTI-DRUG PROGRAMS

WASHINGTON -- The top three programs used by schools to keep students away
from drugs are either ineffective or haven't been sufficiently tested, new
research suggests. In a study being published today in Health Education
Research, a journal for educators, researchers from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill say many schools are using popular programs such as
D.A.R.E., Here's Looking at You 2000 and McGruff's Drug Prevention and
Child Protection, which haven't shown the kind of results that schools
should expect, despite years of use.

"It's not a very good use of taxpayer money," said Denise Hallfors, now a
substance abuse prevention researcher at the Pacific Institute for Research
and Evaluation, a nonprofit group. She was at the University of North
Carolina when she conducted the research.

The study found that, in spite of a decade of efforts from the federal
government to promote proven programs, many schools still use "heavily
marketed curricula that have not been evaluated, have been evaluated
inadequately or have been shown to be ineffective in reducing substance abuse."

The most popular, D.A.R.E., Drug Abuse Resistance Education, was created by
police officers in Los Angeles in 1983 to teach children about the dangers
of drugs. More than 50,000 officers have been trained nationwide and the
program is being implemented in 80 percent of school districts.

Charlie Parsons, executive director of D.A.R.E. America, said the research
in Hallfors' study refers to D.A.R.E.'s old curriculum, which is no longer
used.

He also noted that D.A.R.E. officers get two weeks of training, unlike many
other programs, which are run by for-profit organizations.

"The strength of D.A.R.E. is that the implementation and the fidelity
always gets high marks, because of the training involved," he said.