Pubdate: Tue, 21 Nov 2000
Source: Gloucester Daily Times (MA)
Copyright: 2000 Essex County Newspapers, Incorporated.
Contact:  http://www.gloucestertimes.com/

ADDRESSING DRUG ABUSE

The School Department is considering scaling back the DARE program. School 
Committee Chairman Michael Faherty would consider dropping it altogether.

Faherty is on the right track. DARE does not fulfill its stated mission: to 
reduce drug abuse among young people. The mission it does fulfill -- to 
bring police officers and young people together -- is worthwhile but should 
be reformatted.

DARE -- or Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- swept the nation about 10 
years ago. Kiwanis Clubs and PTOs lined up to donate money, and police 
officers competed for the opportunity to serve in the schools. DARE 
officers were given cars and relatively large budgets. There was complete 
media coverage of every DARE graduation ceremony.

Adults, especially suburban adults, loved it. The program seemed so simple: 
If you just tell Johnny and Janie about how bad drugs are, they won't do 
them. A few skits, a few classroom exercises, a T-shirt and bingo, the drug 
problem is gone.

Slowly, a few studies began to show that drug abuse among teens and 
pre-teens were not affected by DARE programs. This was, of course, 
politically incorrect and so communities kept funding the DARE programs and 
kept their fingers crossed.

In actuality, DARE programs are just the type of social engineering that 
clutter up the school day and mask underlying issues. Schools don't cause 
drug abuse and schools can't solve drug abuse. Young people who abuse drugs 
may have family problems or may be clinically depressed or may face other 
complex social problems, none of which can or should be addressed primarily 
by teachers or police officers.

For young people with serious emotional problems, the DARE program is 
useless -- just ask them. For young people who probably won't abuse drugs, 
the DARE program provides a level of detail that is unnecessary and even 
counterproductive.

Where the DARE program has been useful is in bringing police officers into 
the schools. Young people can become less intimidated of authority if they 
get to know their DARE officer, and individual young people have benefited 
substantially from the role model these officers provide.

But let's not use drug abuse as a cover for building a relationship between 
young people and police officers. Gloucester has successfully pursued 
community policing grants that fund a regular police presence in the high 
school and middle school, and this is both appropriate and honest.

If the community wants to fight drug abuse among teens, there are plenty of 
avenues that are quantifiably more productive than the DARE program. The 
YMCA Teen Center is an example. The Gloucester Prevention Network is 
another. Make a donation to Artspace or Child Development Programs. Better 
yet, volunteer your time -- as a youth coach, as a Scout leader, as a Big 
Brother or Big Sister, as a tutor. The time and money spent on the DARE 
program could be better used elsewhere.
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