Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 14:26:13 -0700
From: lvnorml@yahoo.com ("Las Vegas NORML")
Subject: Good Article fro citylife - Dare to dump DARE
To: Undisclosed.Recipients
Reply-To: lvnorml@yahoo.com ("Las Vegas NORML")
Dare to Dump DARE=20
04/26/01
Email this story to a friend
By Randall Shelden=20
Well, the cat is finally out of the bag! The truth about DARE has =
finally been accepted by even some of its strongest supporters. The =
academic research has been very consistent about the effects of DARE, =
which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. It has been a =
miserable failure, to say the least, but it has continued to be =
well-received by the mainstream media and all of the "true believers" =
out there. The federal government finally put an end to the funding of =
this program. The propaganda put forth by its ardent supporters even had =
millions of parents, believing that their kids were not using drugs =
because they had graduated from a DARE program, go so far as to put the =
now ubiquitous bumper stickers on their cars, proclaiming that "My child =
is a proud graduate of DARE"!=20
What these parents failed to realize is that, statistically speaking, =
their child would have not used drugs even if they had never been =
exposed to a drug program; or conversely, they may have eventually used =
drugs partly because they attended the program. Why? Simply because drug =
use is the result of a complex set of factors=97family, community, =
economic, political, historical. The fact that most Americans refuse to =
get into their collective heads is that drug use is normal in this =
society. Everybody at one time or another uses or, more correctly, =
experiments with some kind of drug, including alcohol and tobacco. And =
DARE was based in part on the erroneous belief that the way to combat =
drug abuse is total abstience.=20
DARE got its start in 1983 and was the brainchild of then-Los Angeles =
Police Chief Daryl Gates. This should have caused some suspicion right =
away. Gates became infamous when, after a series of deaths to black men =
because of the use of the police "choke hold," he offered this theory of =
why so many had died: "We may be finding that in some blacks when [the =
carotid choke hold] is applied the veins or arteries do not open up as =
fast as they do on normal [sic] people." So Blacks are not "normal" =
people. This logic extended to Gates' repressive activities toward =
alleged gang members in South Central, which included the use of tanks =
and "battering rams" and even a mobile booking station near the Los =
Angeles Coliseum, resulting in the arrests of more than 1,200 black =
youths on such serious charges as "loitering" and "curfew." So here we =
have Gates suggesting that DARE will "take a bite" out of drug use by =
sending his storm troopers right into the elementary schools to warn =
kids about the dangers of drug use.=20
This came at the height of the "Just Say No" mantra started by Nancy =
Reagan. You know this one, the simplistic slogan that was based upon the =
naive belief that anyone, regardless of their life circumstances, their =
environments, their genetics, can just walk away from temptation. And it =
became a public relations coup of sorts for the embattled Gates to send =
in some of his finest, most clean-cut young officers, decked out in =
their uniforms to impress the little kiddies in their fifth-grade class =
for one hour per week for 17 weeks, ostensibly teaching the little ones =
how to resist drugs. The course even had a graduation ceremony! =
Eventually the program spread to all 50 states with plenty of federal =
money, which bought plenty of advertising and sales of merchandise, and =
they even had an annual conference with plenty of "feel good" speakers =
telling everyone how wonderfully successful DARE was.=20
With so much hoopla and propaganda, not to mention all the positive =
attention heaped upon its supporters and their true believers, was it =
any surprise that they dismissed the research as coming from =
"pointy-headed academics" and turned around and published their own, =
in-house "evaluations" that said it was working. One of their reports =
"discovered" that the fifth-grade kids who went through the program knew =
more about the consequences of drug use than kids who did not pass =
through. Good grief, what an amazing scientific discovery that was! But =
it was no wonder they knew more since such information was part of the =
curriculum! And of course their famous rejoinder was always along the =
lines of "if it prevents just one child from using drugs..." Well, =
frankly, if some drug was only that effective, the Food and Drug =
Administration would never approve it!=20
Finally, the consistent reports of the academic researchers could no =
longer be ignored. One study found no significant difference in =
subsequent drug use between kids who went through the program and those =
who did not, while still another (University of Chicago six-year =
follow-up) found that the positive effects wore off by their senior year =
and in fact some had actually increased their drug use. Still another =
evaluation (a 10-year follow-up) by the University of Kentucky found it =
had no effects on students by the time they reached their 20th birthday. =
The mayor of Salt Lake City even went so far as to claim the program was =
a "complete fraud" and a "waste of money," while it "fritters away the =
opportunity to implement a good drug-prevention program in schools."=20
Other cities have canceled DARE for similar reasons.=20
So what can we conclude, after 18 years of DARE failures? We had better =
beware of at least two things before we jump on the bandwagon. First, =
never trust in simplistic "magic bullets" like DARE. There is no "magic =
bullet" for any of our problems, especially drug abuse. Second, too many =
people become "true believers" that allow their own egos to become too =
identified with their pet programs so that they do not accept obvious =
failure. There are plenty of other ways to effectively reduce drug =
abuse=97the scientific literature provides many examples.=20
Randall G. Shelden is a professor of criminal justice at UNLV.=20