For my persuasive essay, I want to discuss my opinions on the D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. My question of policy, should D.A.R.E. continue to be in existence? Many people would assume yes but I do not believe this to definitely be the case. This program is in 75% of US school districts and in 48 countries. About 70,000 police officers have taught over 200 million K-12 students the dangers of drugs and alcohol. (3 Kalishman)

This clearly sounds like a beneficial program, right? After all, we want to teach the youth of America about the potential harms they could come in contact with. However, some major studies have shown that the D.A.R.E. program actually may not be as advantageous as many people think it is. In fact, it can actually cause some bad side effects. That is why I believe that is notably important to address this issue. Most people blindly believe the idea that the program is causing nothing but positive effects, yet they are the ones who need to be educated about the actual program. The public needs to fully know about this program and how it is taught, before they can trust people to teach their children. I am particularly interested in this topic because of the new setting that I am in: college. Drinking and drugs are much more prevalent than they were in high school, to an almost unbelievable degree. Yet, almost all of these kids went through D.A.R.E. So if I still constantly see myself surrounded by drug use and underage drinking, there clearly is something wrong with the system.

There are a couple of main questions I want to focus my research on. Firstly, how has D.A.R.E. affected drug use since it began? Has it gone up? Down? No change? And are these changes due to the program or some other latent variables? Second, how much does it cost? Can these funds be used in some more efficient way? Thirdly, what can be done instead to prevent drug use and underage drinking? Is education really the best way? Or would harsher punishments act as a better deterrent?

I find all of these questions very interesting and I hope that by researching this topic in depth, I will get a full understanding of all beneficial and bad effects of this program.

Ariel Kalishman, “D.A.R.E. Fact Sheet,” Drug Policy Alliance website, Apr. 2003