Megan Freiling
Senior Editor

Heather Shute
Reporter

Effectiveness of D.A.R.E. program questioned, despite notoriety

By Megan Freiling and Heather Shute

Some consider Drug Abuse Resistance Education successful, boasting presence in 80 percent of school districts nationwide and $700 million in federal aid.

Students, as young as kindergarten, are warned of the potential dangers of the misuse of drugs, medicine and other substances, even though they may not understand what are constituted as illegal drugs.

Perhaps for this reason, and despite its immense popularity, the success of the D.A.R.E. program is being questioned.

A few government officials and community leaders have begun to question the effects and long-term prevention of the D.A.R.E. program, stating that trends in teenage drug use and abuse have skyrocketed. Was the D.A.R.E. generation really listening to police officers who spoke a hard message?

A January report on D.A.R.E. by the government’s General Accounting Office concluded that “the program has had no statistically significant long-term effect on preventing youth illicit drug use, and that students who participate in it demonstrate no significant differences in their attitudes toward illicit drug use—as compared to children who had not been exposed to the program.”

The program created the concept of gateway drugs, suggesting that milder illicit drugs—like marijuana—lead directly to experimentation with, and addiction to, hard drugs like crack cocaine and heroin.

Some researchers say that treating marijuana the same as heroin reduces the credibility of D.A.R.E.'s message. Youth who use drugs are more likely to be afraid or suspicious of the uniformed police officers that teach the D.A.R.E. classes.

Ethan Nadelmann of Drug Alliance Policy said the large majority of teenagers have tried at least one drug by the time they graduate. “When you start talking about teenagers, then you have to just deal with reality,” he said. Nadelmann said 80 percent of all high school teenagers have tried alcohol by the time they graduate and 50 percent have tried marijuana. “Cigarettes are illegal for young people as well,” he said. “But the evidence from a few years ago was that 80 percent of all high school teenagers say they have tried alcohol by the time they graduate.”

A 1993 study by the American Psychological Association found that D.A.R.E., which emphasizes "say no to drugs" lectures, has no long-term effect of keeping children off drugs, as well as pushing out local programs such as classes taught by teachers and peers.

Freshman Emily Zeiger said, “Peer discussions would have had more of an impact. Hearing from teachers and police officers who may have never tried anything doesn’t mean much.”

The D.A.R.E. message does not change—from young children to teenagers—with a consistent federal law influence claiming a zero-tolerance message. Young adults may pass off a “childish” message quickly when faced with a real-life situation—involving drugs or alcohol.

The program targets children who are very young. Some researchers say that D.A.R.E.’s message may be hard for young elementary students to understand. Freshman Anne Johannsen agreed. “We were still in elementary school,” she said. “We didn’t hit problems with drugs until junior high.”

Nadelmann proposed that, “when you start talking to teenagers, the message should be: don’t use drugs. The second message should also be don’t use drugs. But then the third message needs to be something like: if you do, even though we’ve told you not to and even though we strongly recommend you do not, there are certain things you need to know.”

But the program, as it stands now, emphasizes only zero tolerance.

D.A.R.E. has been successful in establishing itself as a drug education icon, finding its catchy motto, “Just Say No,” plastered on police cars, stickers and T-shirts.

But its success as an effective program that keeps youth from using and abusing drugs and alcohol might need to be reevaluated.

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D.A.R.E. of America Official Website