The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) Program is an international substance prevention program that mainly aims at preventing the use of controlled substances, violent behaviour and mentorship in gangs. Students who are enrolled into the program pledge not to abuse drugs or join gangs and are informed about the dangers of recreational drug abuse in an interactive ten-week in-school curriculum. Despite its potential benefits to the society and huge popularity with parents, the effectiveness and continued funding of the D.A.R.E program has over the past few years become a source of heated public debate, making it a frequent target for budget cuts. Policy makers and other key stakeholders have however overlooked the transformation that the program has undergone over the last decade. The new DARE program has proven to be quite effective in the prevention of drug and substance abuse and as such, it should not be eliminated.

Several research studies have shown that the D.A.R.E program does not have any significant impacts on students as far as substance abuse is concerned (Freiheit, Montague, & Wiggington, 199; United States General Accounting Office, 2003; West & O’Neal, 2004). Nonetheless, DARE America, which is responsible for administering the program has over the past few years worked closely with prevention scientists in a bid to improve its curriculum to make the program more effective for today’s students. There are several differences between the new course referred to as “keepin’ it REAL” and the former DARE program. For instance, as opposed to long lectures laden with drug facts, the new program is characterised by interactive lessons that revolve around stories aimed at helping kids to make smart decisions. Moreover, instead of focusing on the prevention of drug use, the new program diverted its attention to things like being safe, responsible and honest. In spite of this diversion, keepin’ it REAL has proven to be more effective in reducing drug and substance abuse among students (D.A.R.E, 2014).

The major shortcoming of the original DARE curriculum was the fact that it was formulated by police officers, who had no experience whatsoever in early childhood development and human psychology. As such, they believed that merely telling student’s about the dangers of drug and substance abuse would suffice to change their attitudes towards drugs. To the contrary, the first national study of the D.A.R.E program that was published in 1994 revealed that it only resulted in short term reduction in the use of tobacco among students. However, there was no significant change in the consumption of other drugs such as alcohol and marijuana. Later in 1996, the results of a five year, longitudinal evaluation of the program suggested that there was no significant difference between 7^th grade students who participated in the program and those who did not, just one year after the program (Clayton, Cattarello, & Johnstone, 1996).

To conclude, while the DARE program has failed to deliver any significant outcomes since its inception, DARE America has made deliberate efforts to revamp the program to make it more effective in preventing drug and substance abuse. So far so good these efforts have paid off. For this reason, the government cannot afford to discontinue the program. Even though several authors have pointed out the shortcomings of the DARE program, most if not all of them will agree that a similar program should be implemented in schools countrywide. In light of its recent success, policy makers and other key stakeholders should come up with ways of improving the program rather than eliminating it.

References

Clayton, R. R., Cattarello, A. M., & Johnstone, B. M. (1996). The effectiveness of D.A.R.E. Amsterdam: Academic Press Inc. Retrieved from pbs.org.

D.A.R.E. (2014, September 4). The New D.A.R.E. Program—This One Works. Retrieved from dare.org: http://www.dare.org/the-new-dare-program-this-one-works/

Freiheit, P., Montague, S., & Wiggington, L. (199, July 26). A Critical Look at the D.A.R.E. Program and Effective Youth Programs. Retrieved from EDGE: https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/ganginterv/criticallook.htm

United States General Accounting Office. (2003, 15 January). Youth Illicit Drug Use Prevention: DARE Long-Term Evaluations and. Retrieved from gao.gov: http://www.gao.gov/assets/100/91676.pdf

West, S. L., & O’Neal, K. K. (2004). Project D.A.R.E. Outcome Effectiveness Revisited. American Journal of Public Health, 1027-1029.