reprinted with permission of the Worthington Daily Globe from the Letters to the Editor 3-25-05 issue
DARE is part of the problem
I opened the paper today to read the headline, “DARE celebrates 15 years.” I see
their public relations program continues unchecked. What a farce. It is no small
coincidence that the rapid rise in meth usage in this region has run parallel to
the increasing classroom exposure to the DARE program. This is where most kids
receive their first authoritative introduction to the illicit drug world. I
opposed it before it came in to most area schools and cited studies back at the
time that indicated DARE would prompt an increase in drug use, due to its moral
pedagogical flaws. Even the U.S. Justice Department now begrudgingly
acknowledges it is a failure.
For our genuine concern to reduce illicit drug use among children at the time,
Dr. Wm. Coulson of California and myself — public critics of DARE — earned the
right to be targets of intelligence reports written up and circulated by the
Iowa DARE Officers Association and the Captain of the Los Angeles DARE division,
warning what enemies to the DARE program we were. I took it as a badge of honor.
Make no mistake the law enforcement community today bears a heavy responsibility
for the dramatic increase in illegal drug usage in Iowa and Minnesota, as a
result of the DARE program. With the increased drug usage then the taxpayers
need to build a new multi-million jail in Nobles County. I assume they had to
hire more staff and expand the payroll etc. to house all the new drug criminals
in their new jail ... which law enforcement helped create.
The state creates the problem in the school and then expands their scope,
authority and taxation to provide the “fix,” all of which cost Nobles County
residents in broken social families and in even more taxes.
The ardent supporters of DARE are usually adolescent-acting adults who have
little idea on how to properly raise their own children, or else law enforcement
officers who have a vested financial interest in keeping the program alive. The
children? They are being lied to and the harm continues. Many others quietly
suspect DARE is hurting children.
It is and still deserves to be shut down.
Paul R. Dorr Ocheyedan, Iowa