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We see the result of adolescence drug abuse, crime, and misconduct everyday in the papers, onradio, and on T.V.. Are now common place more and more often.
The established answer is Darrel Gates's Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E. for short. D.A.R.E. is in 1993, over 3,000 class rooms in all 50 states. Around 15,000 trained officers . D.A.R.E is in roughly 50% of the class rooms nation wide. The D.A.R.E. officersreceive 80 hours of training at an estimated $2,000 each. Program cost can Shoot upwards to$90,600. The total expenditures of the program are between 200 according to D.A.R.E. to 700 million. D.A.R.E. was started as a joint effort between The Los Angles Police Department, and the Los Angles Unified school district. The core curriculum is aimed at 5 to 6 graders. But it canbe modified to reach other grades.
Main tactics have been called experimental mysticism or value clarification. The positive effects have been reported to be short term, weeks or months. For most the effects are improved self esteem, more positive feelings toward authority figures/police. The outcome on drug use where also short term and virtually nonexistent. In an University of Indiana Kokomo study sighted one of D.A.R.E.'s Flaws was that it failed to address the root cause's of drug abuse. Though they also felt many drug prevention programs also failed in this area also. It also showed that using peer pressure to prevent drug use often alienated instead of conversion of deviant students. This study too showed great concern "freewill/user accountability" (values clarification) claiming it was one dimensional.
The Ashfeild-Plainfeild Regional School district report released on June, 6, 1994 sighted non-parental involvement in the D.A.R.E. ( IE children are discouraged from taking D.A.R.E.material home). It also sighted that D.A.R.E. lacked a strong alcohol and tobacco education/prevention component. Though the so-called new (1995) D.A.R.E. has increased Tobacco component.
Results of the recently released Triangle Research Institute (TRI) found that D.A.R.E. did increase the adolescence awareness of the cost of the use Alcohol, tobacco, and inhalants, the media portrayal of these substances. It failed however on preventing the use of the fore mentioned drugs, or plans for future use. One of the numerous flaws was D.A.R.E wasn't interactive enough the New D.A.R.E. is reported to be 70% more interactive. Though highly supportive on the startof the start of the study, the department of Justice (the people who "hired" TRI) later rejected the study when the negative results came in, and refused to publish the results of this study. Sabine Beisler of The American Journal of public health (ho did print a small write up on the results of this study) said "D.A.R.E. has tried to interfere with the publication of this" she continued "They'd tried to intimated us."
The experts too have complaints the D.A.R.E. program. M. Amos Clifford writing in the California prevention network journal said "every expert prevention specialist I know will without a single exception . . . believes that D.A.R.E. should be ranked somewhere between a sham and mediocrity. William Midzeleski, drug prevention specialist U.S. department of education said "Research shows that, no, D.A.R.E. hasn't been effective in reducing drug use."
Under the Hatch Amendment (Federal Register, Vol. 49 No. 174, Sept, 6, 1984 page 35321=22) critics of D.A.R.E. claim that D.A.R.E. does not have parental review, and parental consent. Gary Peterson of ft Collins Colorado says about D.A.R.E. "Very clearly, this program is illegal according to federal law as it's been implemented in Poudre R-1's program" One of these problem area's is under the Hatch amendment D.A.R.E. curriculum material must be made available for public inspection. To this Peterson replied "They have consistently refused to let us look at the instructors manual ."
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