DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) started in Los Angeles in 1983 and is now being implemented in most U.S. school districts as well as in some 43 countries around the world. DARE’s primary focus is to train local police on the skills needed to help children recognize and resist the subtle and overt pressures that cause them to experiment with drugs or to become involved in gangs or violent activities.
At the present time, according to Maj. Gregg Wilkerson, the Independence policeman in charge of our local DARE Program, “There is one sergeant and five officers assigned to the program. During the summer months they have other responsibilities.”
Each officer receives 80 hours of special training in areas such as child development, classroom management, teaching techniques, and communications skills. An additional 40 hours are required to teach the high school curriculum.
The program in Independence targets children in the fifth through seventh grades and costs approximately $300,000 per year, most of which comes through COMBAT, Jackson County’s sales tax dedicated to anti-drug efforts. In 2004, Independence Police Chief Fred Mills complained we were being greatly shorted.
Despite the program’s noble aims, it has aroused considerable opposition from many quarters as being expensive and not living up to its promises. Oakland, Calif., withdrew from the program based on its view that it was too expensive and ineffective.
Several other communities have come to a similar conclusion. The American Psychological Association found that most kids do not engage in drug use, even without any intervention program, and that DARE has no long-term effect. This conclusion was based on tracking 1,000 Midwestern students who participated in the sixth grade and then were re-evaluated at age 20. More than a dozen other studies have questioned DARE’s lasting impact. Seattle, Spokane, Omaha, Austin, Houston, Milwaukee, Fayetteville and Boulder are among numerous other cities that have dropped the program.
Major Wilkerson can offer no empirical evidence of DARE’s effectiveness but he offers several highly convincing anecdotal reasons why he supports the program. They include the real, but hard to measure, value of young people learning to be friends with and appreciative of the police and what they are called upon to do by way of protecting citizens and the community. Based on his personal contact with local school administrators and teachers, he feels they also look with favor upon the program.
Part of the problem with DARE, if there is a problem, is that its “just say no” mantra is very similar to the failed “no sex before marriage” contract à la Sarah Palin. Some critics charge that simple slogans, bumper stickers and T-shirts are deceiving people into believing that DARE is “the” answer to drug abuse in America – which it most assuredly is not.
Another problem is that the entire American attitude toward drugs is being increasingly exposed as being both unwise and ineffective. It is increasingly difficult for us to defend our having the highest prison rate in the world, and 40 percent of our prisoners are incarcerated because of drug offenses.
At a time when our city budget has difficulty covering essential community services, perhaps now would be a good time for our city and school leaders to re-evaluate our devotion to Combat and the DARE Program.
