DARE DRUG PROGRAMME IS FAILING

New evidence suggesting recent campaigns using high-profile drug educators
have failed, shows good intentions are no substitute for effective
anti-drug education.

Here in the United States the high-profile Drug Abuse Resistance Education
programme is finally being acknowledged as the failure it is. Every
methodologically sound, independent evaluation has found it either
ineffective or counterproductive. Its scare tactics do more harm than good.
Students who realise they are being lied to about cannabis often make the
mistake of assuming that harder drugs are relatively harmless as well.

This is a recipe for disaster. Anti-drug education needs to be
reality-based or it will backfire when kids are inevitably exposed to drug
use among their peers.

After almost two decades of DARE, heroin use in high school seniors has
reached record levels. Minimising drug use requires strategies of proven
effectiveness, not "feel good" programmes that please parents, educators
and police.

Robert Sharp

Lindesmith Centre

Drug Policy Foundation

Washington