ON DRUG EDUCATION

To the editor, Naples Daily News:

Regarding the letter from Robert Sharpe, Drug Policy Alliance,
Washington, D.C.

Mr. Sharpe, a program officer with the Drug Policy Alliance, must know
a lot about drug abuse prevention. He states that D.A.R.E., the
anti-drug education program taught by Collier County sheriff's
deputies in every Collier County public elementary school, has been
found to be either ineffective or counterproductive at keeping kids
off drugs.

Yet participation in D.A.R.E. is required of all Collier County public
school students in fifth grade in order to be eligible to enter middle
school.

How much taxpayer money is currently spent on this program? How much
deputy time is spend on training and implementation of D.A.R.E.? How
many hours does each student spend going through the program? If
participation in D.A.R.E. is at best ineffective, wouldn't students'
time in school be better spent on academics? Since the program is
well-intentioned, why not at least make it an opt-in program? We
parents are the most effective anti-drug educators. We must pick up
the baton and actively teach our kids that drug use is a lose/lose
proposition. The choice to participate in D.A.R.E. should be left up
to the parents and the student, not the bureaucrats.

JULIA LANE BROWN
Naples