Pubdate: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 Source: Columbia Daily Tribune (MO) Copyright: 2001 Columbia Daily Tribune Contact: http://www.showmenews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/91 Author: John Warner Note: Officer John Warner is a member of the Crime Prevention Unit of the Columbia Police Department. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.) DARE AS REAL AS IT GETS I am writing in response to the Open Column response on April 7 concerning the "drug war" and the DARE program. The letter, written by Robert Sharpe of The Lindesmith Center of Washington, D.C., was commenting on the appearance of Gen. Barry McCaffrey at Westminster College and Forrest Rose's column. I'm impressed that the program director of the Lindesmith Center would be interested in Rose's column. Rose must certainly have more clout than even I would have imagined. I'm trying to think of why someone from Washington, D.C., would feel the need to respond to a local article. If that is the crux of his job, Sharpe must be a very busy man. Sharpe says "every methodologically sound" - meaning the ones he agrees with - "evaluation of DARE has found the program to be either ineffective or counterproductive." The research has gone nothing like that, in that there are dozens of studies that go in both directions as to effectiveness, the most peer-reviewed of which acknowledged that DARE has a lasting effect when follow-up is consistent in the upper grades. The claim of counterproductivity was cited in one study about eight or nine years ago and, of course, is restated over and over by those who feel DARE is "an example of drug warrior misinformation." None of the critics of the program, as far as I have been able to determine, has even attended or observed a DARE class. This includes our biggest critics locally: Dan Viets and Mitch Moore. They have both been content to regurgitate the NORML - the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws - and Libertarian party line of "education should be done by professional educators," when even the detractors of the program have specifically stated that having police officers teach a prevention curriculum is the gold standard of delivery systems for such information. Sharpe says "anti-drug education programs need to be reality-based." I and the 40,000 DARE officers nationwide couldn't agree more. Teaching kids that heroin is bad is important - and a part of the DARE curriculum - but it is even more important to teach that the drugs they are most likely to experiment with first are those that have a higher overall incidence of addiction consequences. Tobacco kills more people than all other drugs combined. Alcohol fuels a vast variety of social ills. The 400 chemicals found in marijuana smoke, some of which are carcinogens such as found in tobacco, might have long-term effects that we are only now discovering. "Scare tactics," Mr. Sharpe? Being scared is a reaction to information presented, not the information itself. If an individual finds fear from the information about drug use, perhaps that is the body's way of telling us that we should pay attention. Finding an alternative to that fear - in the form of education - is what we in the prevention field hope for. We're not looking for "feel-good" programs. We're looking for "work-good" programs. DARE, when presented as a full program from kindergarten through high school and supported by active, involved parents, works. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager