By Request: The Truth about D.A.R.E.

[RS Davis]

[glow=red,2,300]Paul Armentano Wrote:[/glow] If popularity was the sole measure of success then D.A.R.E., the "Drug Abuse Resistance Education" curriculum that is now taught in 80 percent of school districts nationwide, would be triumphant. However, if one is to gauge success by actual results, then America's most pervasive and expensive youth drug education program is (and always has been) a gigantic and incontrovertible flop.

So says the General Accounting Office (GAO) in a scathing new report that finds the politically popular program has had "no statistically significant long-term effect on preventing youth illicit drug use." In addition, students who participate in D.A.R.E. demonstrate "no significant differences... [in] attitudes toward illicit drug use [or] resistance to peer pressure"

- Rick

[outgirl]

DARE makes parents, teachers, law enforcement and the politicians feel like they are doing something whether it is effective or not. It's all about the appearance, not results.

[RS Davis]

outgirl said:

DARE makes parents, teachers, law enforcement and the politicians feel like they are doing something whether it is effective or not. It's all about the appearance, not results.

Do you think they never intended it to be effective, or they just don't care that it's not because it makes them feel good?

- Rick

[outgirl]

RS said:

Do you think they never intended it to be effective, or they just don't care that it's not because it makes them feel good?

- Rick

I don't know. I think initially they had good intentions. I smoke pot and have done my share of drugs over the years but I didn't want my adolescent doing it. I knew her time for experimentation would come, but like sex, I did want her to be old enough to handle it. I always taught her that sex, alcohol and marijuana were for adults. I don't think there's anything wrong with any of those things but I didn't want my 13 yr old doing any of it. Now she's a sexually active, pot smoking alcoholic lol. Just kidding about the alcoholic part. But she went through DARE. Do you think it worked?

[dr snootch]

outgirl said:

I don't know. I think initially they had good intentions. I smoke pot and have done my share of drugs over the years but I didn't want my adolescent doing it. I knew her time for experimentation would come, but like sex, I did want her to be old enough to handle it. I always taught her that sex, alcohol and marijuana were for adults. I don't think there's anything wrong with any of those things but I didn't want my 13 yr old doing any of it. Now she's a sexually active, pot smoking alcoholic lol. Just kidding about the alcoholic part. But she went through DARE. Do you think it worked?

I think you're right about the program being started with good intentions, I just think it's incredibly hard to get something like this stopped due to the 'feel good' effect. It's probably not much different philosophically, than Affirmative Action. A program begun with good intentions which didn't work and now feels too good to get rid of.

I think the best way to keep kids informed is just to give them the straight skinny about drugs. Many of them are inherently dangerous. Some of them can kill very easily. Some of them are not inherently dangerous.

If we lie to kids about pot and they find out, the only logical conclusion they can make is that we're lying about the rest of them, too.

[penguin]

dr said:

I think the best way to keep kids informed is just to give them the straight skinny about drugs. Many of them are inherently dangerous. Some of them can kill very easily. Some of them are not inherently dangerous.

If we lie to kids about pot and they find out, the only logical conclusion they can make is that we're lying about the rest of them, too.

Which is precisely the way I thought when I was in High School. It was so obvious that those in charge were World Class Bullshitters when it came to things like weed, their credibility as a whole was greatly diminished in the eyes of We, The Children.

I agree that D.A.R.E. probably began with good intentions, but now (in light of the mounting evidence that it just plain doesn't work) it has taken on a "feel-good" life of its own, and to openly suggested it be scrapped brands one as "soft on drugs."

Of course, I am soft on drugs, for free adults, but there are other ways to teach kids about them.

I saw a great D.A.R.E. t-shirt that said, "I turned in my parents, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". I'd like to have on of those.

[RS Davis]

penguin said:

Which is precisely the way I thought when I was in High School. It was so obvious that those in charge were World Class Bullshitters when it came to things like weed, their credibility as a whole was greatly diminished in the eyes of We, The Children.

I agree that D.A.R.E. probably began with good intentions, but now (in light of the mounting evidence that it just plain doesn't work) it has taken on a "feel-good" life of its own, and to openly suggested it be scrapped brands one as "soft on drugs."

Of course, I am soft on drugs, for free adults, but there are other ways to teach kids about them.

I saw a great D.A.R.E. t-shirt that said, "I turned in my parents, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". I'd like to have on of those.

Agreed. Especially about those t-shirts!

I think drug and alcohol education should be left up to parents.

- Rick

[emilysrevolution]

I think it was politically motivated to attempt to rally support from people for the war on drugs.

RS said:

Do you think they never intended it to be effective, or they just don't care that it's not because it makes them feel good?

- Rick

[RS Davis]

emilysrevolution said:

I think it was politically motivated to attempt to rally support from people for the war on drugs.

You mean, to sorta brainwash future supporters while they were young, with heads full of mush?

- Rick