DARE TO CUT PROGRAM

I must support the Watertown City Council in its quest for rational
expenditures. I refer, of course, to their desire to cancel the DARE
program. DARE certainly sounds like a wonderful idea: "Hey, let's teach
kids not to use drugs".

But remember when Fleishmann and Pons announced their wonderful discovery
of cold fusion? Nobody could reproduce their results, and they were
laughed out of town. Well, DARE proponents cannot show that DARE has had
any effect on the uptake of drugs by its graduates. There's no evidence it
works. Researchers have looked, but the drug uptake rate is the same
regardless of whether a youth experienced the DARE program or not.

I hope that the Watertown City Council rides DARE out of town on a rail.

Russell Nelson

Potsdam (NY)