Another School District Nixes DARE Drug Program
Suffolk County, home to 1.4 million residents on eastern Long Island, has become yet another community to drop the education program known as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). That change came after 19 years of police officers teaching students in the county’s five towns about the risks of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, as well as peer pressure and safety.
The comments from Police Commissioner Richard Dormer were unlike the normal political rhetoric. Said Dormer, “We felt that DARE was not doing what it was supposed to do.” The commissioner then proceeded to reassign many of the DARE officers to active patrol duty.
Colossal Failure?
Project DARE began in 1983 in Inglewood, Calif. and is still the most widely used school-based drug prevention program in the country. However, recent studies have detailed the program as being a failure.
A 2002 study by the National Research Council found that DARE made no significant difference in drug use among students. Students who were exposed to the DARE program had statistically the same usage rates as students who were not exposed to the program.
In January of 2003, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) gave the DARE anti-drug education program a failing grade. Their 
report indicated that DARE had “No statistically significant long-term effect on preventing youth illicit drug use.” The DARE curriculum’s focus on resisting peer pressure also had no long-term impact on discouraging youth from drug use.
Since that point DARE has revised their curriculum yet the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News in 2006 singled out DARE as a program receiving a lot of money and attention in Canada’s official drug strategy, but that the program hadn’t shown any proof of effectiveness.
Program Still Popular With Politicians
Despite millions spent on the program that does not yields any positive impact, the program remains popular with politicians and civic leaders. The American Psychological Association’s Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology offers two explanations for the support.
The first is that teaching children to refrain from drugs simply “feels good.” The second explanation is that D.A.R.E. often appears to work initially as most program participants do refrain from drug use. However, that percentage actually mirrors the general statistic for teens as most do not ever engage in any significant drug use anyway.
With the cost estimates of the program by the GAO at anywhere from $600 to $750 million per year it is easy to see why many add the word colossal to the word failure when describing the program.
Suffolk to Try New Program
A new program known as the Enhanced HealthSmart Curriculum is planned for students in kindergarten through 12th grade in Suffolk County. The program is said to be more comprehensive than DARE, dealing with additional issues such as gangs, gambling, bullying, driving fatalities, dating violence, Internet safety and identity theft.
1 comment
I think DARE is such a failure because it is framed improperly. Here is the description from the official site
“The Official site for the national DARE program. The DARE program gives kids the life skills they need to avoid involvement with drugs, gangs, and violence.”
Rather than “avoid involvement with drugs” a better approach would be “help children become who they were born to be” … of course my wording was no good on that second one, but maybe even “dare to dream” or something like that would be a good approach.
The demand for drugs goes down when people live full and rich lives in emotionally supportive environments. Telling someone not to do something without emphasizing effective alternatives is pointless. Curb demand and you kill the profit margins and business models, but it is hard to curb demand when you have bad framing and the president was an admitted problem alcoholic well into his 40s. After all, alcohol is a drug too.
Leave a Comment