DRUG EDUCATION PROGRAM MUST BE REALITY-BASED

To the Editor:
Regarding the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in use at the United
Christian Academy, good intentions are no substitute for effective drug
education.

Every independent, methodologically sound evaluation of DARE has found the
program to be either ineffective or counterproductive. The scare tactics
used do more harm than good.

Students who realize they've been lied to about marijuana often make the
mistake of assuming that harder drugs like meth are relatively harmless as
well.

This is a recipe for disaster. Drug education programs must be
reality-based or they may backfire when kids are inevitably exposed to drug
use among their peers.

The importance of parental involvement in reducing adolescent drug use
cannot be overstated. School-based extracurricular activities have also
been shown to reduce drug use by keeping kids busy during the hours they're
most prone to getting into trouble. In order for drug education to be
effective it has to be credible.

The most popular recreational drug and the one most often associated with
violent behavior is often overlooked. That drug is alcohol, and it takes
far more lives every year than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be
legal, but it's still the number one drug problem.

Robert Sharpe

Drug Policy Alliance program officer

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.drugpolicy.org/