Re: Cancellation of DARE program in Kelowna. As a mother of three school-aged kids, 16,12, and 11 years of age, who have all been involved with the DARE program, I would love to see it continue. I am sure there are a lot of other parents who would surely agree. Our 12-year-old son, at Rutland Middle School, wrote an essay on why he wants to see this continue, and then, on the other side, write why he is upset about this program being discontinued. [continues 250 words]
Dear Editor, Regarding your November 20 editorial, the importance of parental involvement in reducing adolescent drug use cannot be overstated. School-based extracurricular activities also have been shown to reduce use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're most likely to get into trouble. In order for drug prevention efforts to effectively reduce harm, they must be reality-based. The most popular drug and the one most closely associated with violent behavior is often overlooked by parents. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives each year than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be legal, but it's still the No. 1 drug problem. [continues 137 words]
West Vancouver school administrators are hoping to get a leg up in the fight against youth drug use after completing a two-day course at the West Vancouver Police Department. The seminar, called Drug Identification Training for Education Professionals, was intended to teach school staff to spot the signs of drug and alcohol use among students. The idea is to help educators to intervene before substance abuse gets out of hand. Twenty administrators and counsellors from the community's public and private schools attended the course Oct. 28 and 29. [continues 111 words]
A long-running drug education program is being cut from Kelowna schools in January due to dwindling police resources. RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon said that given the resource pressures presently being experienced, the RCMP in Kelowna could no longer continue to teach the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program and would re-allocate the position to the Serious Crime Unit. The DARE program has run in area schools for 11 years. It involves RCMP school liaison officers teaching 10 lessons per class on healthy choices and decision models children can use when faced with drugs. [continues 224 words]
In an effort to help curb the use of drugs and receive use from a vehicle that was only gathering dust at the county yard, Graham County Sheriff P.J. Allred donated the county's Drug Abuse Resistance Education Bronco to the Willcox Police Department on Monday. Willcox school resource/D.A.R.E. officer Rose Juarez-Lacey and Willcox Police Chief Jake Weaver met with Allred and accepted the donation. The Willcox officers thanked Allred for his generosity and support for the D.A.R.E. program, especially during hard economic times. [continues 286 words]
In schoolrooms throughout Vermilion and surrounding area Grade 6 students are learning about the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Vermilion Constable Denny Martens leads seven classes in five different schools in the DARE, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, program. Which is a nationally run education program to help youth resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence free lives. "We talk about everything from tobacco, marijuana and alcohol to bullying," said Martens. "It's about how to say no, who to say no to and how to avoid situations. What it's saying is how do I make a good, healthy choice. That's what we're really trying to show here." [continues 415 words]
Serious crimes like murder and robberies have slain an anti-drug program in schools. Kelowna RCMP have scrubbed the DARE program so more officers can work on serious cases and general duty. Calls for service may be down, said Supt. Bill McKinnon, but police are dealing with more serious crimes like sexual assault, child pornography, pin-pad fraud and break-ins. "I've gone to city hall asking for a large number (of new officers) this year," he said. "It's to deal with an overburdened workload." [continues 251 words]
A decade of telling youngsters the evils of doing drugs has been the life work of a small group of foothills residents who brought the D.A.R.E. program to local schools. The program is celebrating its 10th year and Jackie Chalmers, who poured her time and effort into getting the program up and running, is thrilled the message is still being heard. The idea of bringing D.A.R.E. (Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education) to the foothills was raised by a group involved in rural crime watch. They had seed money and a vision, but they needed community support to get the program off the ground. [continues 521 words]
Re: "Just Say Yes" editorial, Airdrie City View Oct. 16. Dear editor, Good intentions are no substitute for effective drug education. Independent evaluations of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) have found the program to be either ineffective or counterproductive. The scare tactics used do more harm than good. Students who realize they've been lied to about marijuana may make the mistake of assuming that harder drugs like methamphetamine are relatively harmless as well. This is a recipe for disaster. Drug education programs must be reality-based or they may backfire when kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among their peers. [continues 114 words]
Red Ribbon Week: Students Say Drugs A Mistake Some Will Make Each student at Central High in Phenix City attends a class warning about the dangers of using drugs. It doesn't stop the activity. "There are still some students who do it," said junior LaQuesha Hoskins. "It's around the school and elsewhere. You can see it every day." "Drugs are easy for students to get in Phenix City," said senior Darren Daniel. Students, not only in Phenix City, but Columbus and LaGrange, Ga., discussed drugs this week and what should be done about them. [continues 653 words]
Police Launch Ecstasy Awareness Initiative For Parents The RCMP's Drug and Organized Crime Awareness Service (DOCAS) recently launched Project E-Aware, which is designed to increase awareness of the harmful effects of ecstasy. E-Aware is a new website designed to provide factual information to help parents inform themselves of the dangers of the popular street drug. "Despite what many believe, ecstasy is far from being a safe or recreational drug. This illicit drug is made with a number of toxic chemicals and can be lethal," said Insp. Dan Quirion, the officer in charge of the DOCAS program. "There is no quality control, no dosage control and there is no safe amount to take." [continues 390 words]
RCMP launch ecstasy awareness initiative The RCMP's Drug and Organized Crime Awareness Service (DOCAS) recently launched Project E-Aware, which is designed to increase awareness of the harmful effects of ecstasy. E-Aware is a new website designed to provide factual information to help parents inform themselves of the dangers of the popular street drug. "Despite what many believe, ecstasy is far from being a safe or recreational drug. This illicit drug is made with a number of toxic chemicals and can be lethal," said Insp. Dan Quirion, the officer in charge of the DOCAS program. [continues 438 words]
Re: "Community resource officers connecting with students" Oct. 9, Airdrie City View Dear editor, Prohibitionists are like religious fanatics: Despite all fact, history, science, and common sense proving their failure, they still believe they are doing the right thing. Since Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) was started in the '80s, drug use among teens has quadrupled. That tells me that lying and frightening kids is a counterproductive method of reducing their interest in drugs. The studies done on DARE's effectiveness supports this. [continues 164 words]
The Former Secretary of State Has Long Doubted the Wisdom of Interdiction. When George P. Shultz took office as Ronald Reagan's secretary of state in 1982, his first trip out of the country was to Canada. His second was to Mexico. "Foreign policy starts with your neighborhood," he told me in an interview here in the Canadian capital last week. "I have always believed that and Ronald Reagan believed that very firmly. In many ways he had [the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement] in his mind. He paid a lot of attention to both Mexico and Canada, as I did." [continues 775 words]
Airdrie's new community resource officers will help students of all ages become more comfortable with police officers. Constables Robert Frizzell and Patti Reid, who started Sept. 1, will work with all of the schools in Airdrie. Frizzell will present the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program to younger students and Reid will work with students in middle and high schools. "We are working one success at a time," said Reid. "Through relationship development, we can provide assistance to families in crisis, kids who are being bullied and resolve any safety concerns in the schools, while diminishing elicit drug activity." [continues 318 words]
Some Caledon students were left uncharacteristically quiet during Retro Bill's debut Canadian tour, but only between the fits of laughter. Retro Bill, cited as the most sought after motivational speaker for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12, is the official D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) "Safety Buddy", among many other things. During his career, he has been a writer, director, producer, actor and artist. He currently performs more than 300 shows a year, but until now has never brought his lessons to Canada. [continues 1074 words]
As Maryland weighs legalizing medical marijuana, it should consider my experience when I visited the student lounge at Montgomery College's Rockville campus at lunchtime last week and began interviewing randomly selected students about their views on weed. Among the first group I approached, one of the four young men volunteered within minutes that he not only smoked marijuana but also sold it. He told me his price list: $10 a gram for "middies," the least potent and most readily available variety; $20 a gram for "headies" with more THC; $35 for the strongest, "exotic" types, like "white widow." [continues 827 words]
The best police officer in the state at helping children steer clear of drugs and alcohol works right here. Lower Burrell Patrolman John Marhefka has been named the Drug Awareness and Resistance Education Officer of the Year. Marhefka is in his 12th year of teaching drug and alcohol awareness classes. The Vandergrift native is the 21st officer of the year selected by the state's DARE officer's association. "This is someone who obviously likes his work," said Lower Burrell Police Chief Tracy Lindo, himself a longtime DARE instructor. "He has a confidence level and gets along with the students. You can't fool the kids." [continues 445 words]
After announcing that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program would be suspended for at least a semester in county schools, McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch said the DARE program will continue this school year after all. The reversal came as the county commissioners court prepared to remove $200,000 from the 2010 budget that funds the program and the salaries of the deputies who teach drug resistance education, County Judge Jim Lewis said Tuesday. Lewis said Lynch had sent the commissioners court a memo Friday stating that the program would be reinstated this semester. Lynch had mailed letters to school districts in the county the week before stating that DARE would be suspended indefinitely, but the court had not been previously informed of that decision. [continues 210 words]
SALEM -- In a tug-of-war for the future of the city's youth, police took a hard pull on Tuesday, setting up half a dozen road signs to let everyone know illicit substances are not welcome here. At every main city entrance and in front of every school, officials and authorities erected D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) placards as more than just a warning, but to help children remember to make the choice for a drug-free lifestyle. [continues 332 words]