Donald R. Lynam:

Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), a popular and widely used anti-drug program in many of our nation's schools, has been the subject of a number of rigorous experimental evaluation studies as well as many not-so-rigorous ones. Scientifically sound studies have failed to find any short-or long-term effects of D.A.R.E. on drug use.

Our recently published 10-year follow-up study is no exception. We followed a cohort of children who were sixth-graders when the study began. Of the 31 schools they attended, 23 were randomly assigned to receive D.A.R.E. in the sixth grade while the other eight received whatever drug education was provided in their classes. Participants were assessed yearly through the 10th grade and recontacted when they were 20 years old. Consistent with other scientifically sound studies, we found that D.A.R.E. had no effect on students' drug use at any time through 10th grade. Our10-year follow-up failed to find any "sleeper" effects (i.e., effects showing up later that were not present earlier). At age 20, there were no differences between those who received D.A.R.E. and those who did not in their use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana or other drugs; expectancies about these drugs; or levels of peer pressure resistance. The only difference was that those who received D.A.R.E. reported slightly lower levels of self-esteem at age 20.

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