D.A.R.E. - Best Known Drug Education Program in the United States

The best known drug education program in the United States today is D.A.R. E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). School districts and local police agencies across the United States cooperatively run this program for elementary school children and have by most measures, achieved great success in many areas.

Some researchers have found the program not to be that effective.

The weaknesses to the dare program are that it has little effect on the long, or short term period of someone's life. A study of the effectiveness of the "Dare" program was conducted by a man named Donald Lyman, who documented this theory. (Juvenile Justice, The Core, Second Edition"), (Larry J. Siegel, Brandon C. Welsh, "2005", P. 252/Chapter 10).Donald Lyman and his colleagues followed a cohort of sixth grade children who attended a total of thirty-one schools. Twenty-three schools were randomly assigned the "Dare" program in the sixth grade, the other received whatever routinely anti drug program was assigned to their classes. The research team assessed the participants yearly through the tenth grade, and the re-contacted them when they reached age twenty. The researchers found that dare had no effect on the students drug use through the tenth grade. The ten year follow up produced no "sleeper", or hidden effects that were delayed in developing. (P. 252/Chapter 10). At age twenty the researchers found no difference in the students who went through the "Dare" program, and those who did not, in regards to cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, or other drug use. The only difference found was that those students who did participate in "Dare", reported slightly lower levels of self-esteem

At the age of twenty. Self-esteem was a proponent that that was not being aimed for. According to a review conducted by the General Accounting Office on the effectiveness, which is the research arm of Congress, "Dare" failed to produce any influence on students viewpoints of drugs, or their decision making of the subject matter.

The bottom line is that now a days people are going to do what they want to do, no matter what the public has to say. Juveniles are influenced to do things that wouldn't normally do, due to the fact that they want to look cool and fit in. If it comes to losing one of their friend's, or smoking a cigarette, or what not, chances are to prevent from being bullied, the subject will smoke the cigarette. No one wants to be bullied by doing something out of the ordinary, like listening to what a poster says, or listening to people who don't use any drugs and are trying to be positive role model's for other's.

References:

Larry J. Siegel, Brandon C. Welsh Juvenile Delinquency, The Core, "Second Edition", "2005"