Pubdate: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 Source: Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Parksville Qualicum Beach News Contact: http://www.pqbnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1361 Author: Jason Baker DARE TO RESIST PROPAGANDA Its the first day of school for my five-year-old son. He's pretty excited to be finally going to meet more kids, and its a little scary for us sending him out into the world. As I walked in I was disappointed to see a large DARE poster staring back at me. The propaganda war begins and its only kindergarten. This has struck me as very odd that an RCMP-run drug education program is in our elementary schools. I thought this program was thrown out years ago. It seems there's a lot of parents who are against the DARE program, but its shocking how many are scared to say anything for fear of ridicule and police harassment. The facts behind the DARE program are very flawed and manipulative. When doing research about DARE I was surprised to find statistics that indicate that students that graduated the DARE program were more likely to be drug users when they reach adulthood. It has proven to be a non-effective program and even damaging in some cases. Parents need to research this more closely and take our children's education out of the hands of the RCMP. Drug education should be in the hands of parents, teachers, doctors, and addictions counselors. Jason Baker, Coombs - --- MAP posted-by: Derek