News That Matters

The problem with ‘DARE’ is that it doesn’t work

The popular, widespread, school anti-drug program is still promoted despite scientific evidence it’s a failure

Peter McKnight, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, June 02, 2007

In light of this, the authors concluded that “DARE could be taking the place of other, more beneficial drug use curricula that adolescents could be receiving.”

One weakness of this meta-analysis was that since it examined studies completed during the early days of DARE, it looked only at the attitudes and behaviours of kids shortly after they completed the program rather than assessing its long-term effects. The authors therefore called for longitudinal studies, and some years later, their calls were answered.

A widely reported 1998 study led by criminologist Dennis Rosenbaum tracked more than 1,000 DARE students for six years and found the program had no significant impact on drug use. Even worse, Rosenbaum reported that suburban DARE students had significantly higher rates of drug use than suburban students with no exposure to the program.

via The problem with ‘DARE’ is that it doesn’t work.

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