DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
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DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
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Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#2As a kid during a lot of this, in the 1990s, I felt DARE was stupid and pointless. It did nothing to discourage my peers nor myself from drugs. I did miss out on some cool helicopter tours and some military expos but other than that DARE was seen as a 'stupid meaningless waste of time' according to myself and peers.
Maybe if it wasn't a top down approach, it might've worked. Like if they had my peers dramatize drug related pressure (not watching a video of my 'peers' [they were more like tacky uncool peers, by anyones standard]). Also, not having cops 'teach' it. I didn't feel educated. I felt bad for the cop, as they struggled to convince us that drugs were bad (many of my classes were just anti-cops, so we gave each cop a difficult time, just out of spite). My peers are among the average Americans, not a rough bunch, just anti-authoritarian. :)
For balance, upon writing this post, I'd like to suggest a solution (not just criticize DARE). Have specific teachers teach about drugs. Just like sex educators aren't generalists, they focus on teaching the one subject, sex. Let's have drug educators. I know sex educators get a lot of flack but that flack is falling out of fashion because sex educators are effective. Let's do that for drugs. It could educate many people on the hard drugs that are extremely difficult to quick after one dose (crack, heroin, etc). Educating kids on what's out there, is empowering. Hopefully we can see a healthy change in our system.
Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#3Proud father comment here. Last year my son's school had a DARE essay writing contest. Knowing that I favor legalizing drugs he showed me his submission before turning it in. I should note we had a good conversation about why I think drug use is a very bad idea and the reasons why. His English teacher (8th grade) gave him 100 out of 100. The following is his submission:
D.A.R.E. is a program designed to keep kids from drugs. There are problems with D.A.R.E. though. For example, it is counter productive, gives parents a false sense of security and it wastes money.
In 1989-1996 studies done showed that kids involved in the D.A.R.E. program take 3-5% more drugs than kids not in the D.A.R.E. program. The program also shows specific interest on severe drugs such as cocaine, marijuana and meth. This can cause kids to take the drugs they learned about, making this system completely counter productive.
The D.A.R.E. program wastes money. It is funded by taxes that you pay and those funds are completely wasted on this program. D.A.R.E. shows absolutely no long-term effects on kids. The money spent on D.A.R.E. could be used for much better things than nothing.
This program gives parents a false sense of security. When parents have children in the D.A.R.E. program they think “oh, he is already learning that drugs are bad so I don’t need to teach him myself.” When this happens, kids think their parents don’t care if they are doing drugs, especially when they see other family members doing drugs without any immediate reactions they have learned about in D.A.R.E.. When this happens they think D.A.R.E. lies about what drugs do and start taking them because they believe there is no risk in it.
Some people might say D.A.R.E. helps decrease drug use in kids but there are two problems with this statement. First, it is a lie, kids who are in the dare program have been shown to take 3-5% more drugs than kids who don’t. Second, who cares if kids are taking drugs? Who says it’s a bad thing to take drugs? Yes, they do kill you, but so do doughnuts! Maybe D.A.R.E. should stand for “doughnut abuse resistance education” instead of drug abuse resistance education”. Seeing how they both kill you its just doughnuts make you fat as well as dead.
As you can see the D.A.R.E. program has some severe issues and needs to be taken care of. If we destroyed the D.A.R.E. program we could save enough money to start a new, more effective and important, program. Perhaps it could be “Doughnut Abuse Resistance Education” to warn kids of the dangers of doughnuts. For short we could even call it D.A.R.E., catchy, I know.
Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#4As a kid during a lot of this, in the 1990s, I felt DARE was stupid and pointless. It did nothing to discourage my peers nor myself from drugs. I did miss out on some cool helicopter tours and some military expos but other than that DARE was seen as a 'stupid meaningless waste of time' according to myself and peers. Maybe if it wasn't a top down approach, it might've worked. Like if they had my peers dramatize drug r…
I was a teenage DARE ambassador, taught younger kids how uncool drugs were. But that wasn't nearly as effective as the time I drew a caricature of the class's newest drug user and a friend made 50 copies of it. Major fireworks, major drama, and all adults who wanted to know were now in the know. I may have almost destroyed that poor thing's life, but in doing so I believe I found a faster-acting solution than DARE, at least for kids who didn't want their parents to know.
Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#5Proud father comment here. Last year my son's school had a DARE essay writing contest. Knowing that I favor legalizing drugs he showed me his submission before turning it in. I should note we had a good conversation about why I think drug use is a very bad idea and the reasons why. His English teacher (8th grade) gave him 100 out of 100. The following is his submission: D.A.R.E. is a program designed to keep kids fro…
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Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#6I think Randy Marsh from "South Park" had the most effective anti-marijuana speech I've ever heard:
Stan: I've been told a lot of things about pot, but I've come to find out a lot of those things aren't true! So I don't know what to believe!
Randy: Well, Stan, the truth is marijuana probably isn't gonna make you kill people, and it most likely isn't gonna fund terrorism, but… well, son, pot makes you feel fine with being bored. And it's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or being creative. If you smoke pot you may grow up to find out that you aren't good at anything.
Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#7Proud father comment here. Last year my son's school had a DARE essay writing contest. Knowing that I favor legalizing drugs he showed me his submission before turning it in. I should note we had a good conversation about why I think drug use is a very bad idea and the reasons why. His English teacher (8th grade) gave him 100 out of 100. The following is his submission: D.A.R.E. is a program designed to keep kids fro…
>In 1989-1996 studies done showed that kids involved in the D.A.R.E. program take 3-5% more drugs than kids not in the D.A.R.E. program.
Are DARE programs more likely to be targeted at kids in higher-risk groups?
Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#8As a kid during a lot of this, in the 1990s, I felt DARE was stupid and pointless. It did nothing to discourage my peers nor myself from drugs. I did miss out on some cool helicopter tours and some military expos but other than that DARE was seen as a 'stupid meaningless waste of time' according to myself and peers. Maybe if it wasn't a top down approach, it might've worked. Like if they had my peers dramatize drug r…
I was a teenage DARE ambassador, taught younger kids how uncool drugs were. But that wasn't nearly as effective as the time I drew a caricature of the class's newest drug user and a friend made 50 copies of it. Major fireworks, major drama, and all adults who wanted to know were now in the know. I may have almost destroyed that poor thing's life, but in doing so I believe I found a faster-acting solution than DARE, a…
It seems to me that the best way is simply to severely punish any kid caught taking drugs. And do hair tests to make sure they're caught.
Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#9As a kid during a lot of this, in the 1990s, I felt DARE was stupid and pointless. It did nothing to discourage my peers nor myself from drugs. I did miss out on some cool helicopter tours and some military expos but other than that DARE was seen as a 'stupid meaningless waste of time' according to myself and peers. Maybe if it wasn't a top down approach, it might've worked. Like if they had my peers dramatize drug r…
I was a teenage DARE ambassador, taught younger kids how uncool drugs were. But that wasn't nearly as effective as the time I drew a caricature of the class's newest drug user and a friend made 50 copies of it. Major fireworks, major drama, and all adults who wanted to know were now in the know. I may have almost destroyed that poor thing's life, but in doing so I believe I found a faster-acting solution than DARE, a…
that's...uncool. most people grow out of drug experimentation naturally and never look back. you might have actually fucked that person's life up, compared to if you had done nothing. that's no solution, that's just plain mean.
Re: DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was a teenage DARE ambassador, taught younger kids how uncool drugs were. But that wasn't nearly as effective as the time I drew a caricature of the class's newest drug user and a friend made 50 copies of it. Major fireworks, major drama, and all adults who wanted to know were now in the know. I may have almost destroyed that poor thing's life, but in doing so I believe I found a faster-acting solution than DARE, a…
It seems to me that the best way is simply to severely punish any kid caught taking drugs. And do hair tests to make sure they're caught.
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