Get Rid of D.A.R.E.

[Iplayboard]

In 2001 the Surgeon General placed D.A.R.E. on the list of ineffective government programs. It simply does not work.
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Rather than simply beat the idea that drugs are bad because we said so into kids' brains, which apparently does not work, the goverment should teach kids about drugs in terms of the social and legal consequences of doing drugs. I.E. teach them about proven harms associated with various drugs, not just lumping all drugs together, and letting them decide on their own.

[BCPVP]

...or stay out of it entirely. Let parents teach their kids about drugs since their opinion will probably be more respected than "the government's"...

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...or stay out of it entirely. Let parents teach their kids about drugs since their opinion will probably be more respected than "the government's"...

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Programs like D.A.R.E. come about because too damned many parents don't teach their kids. I'm not defending this or any other program. I'm pointing out why they exist. Noble causes don't always result in the best of plans.

The whole friggin' "War on Drugs" was lost a long time ago. It didn't make the evening news.

The war on drugs started out as one man's way to pave his road to fame. He decided that people werent scared enough of anything so he made weed a killing, psychopath-creating, life-destroying thing. And then got that image firmly implanted in our grandparents' heads, and now they're in our heads.

DARE was started to counter a movement in the late 60s-70s to decriminalize marijuana. Carter was going to do it, and then an aide was involved in a drug scandal. BOOM! Weed is bad again, and in the next few years, up pops DARE.

God, it's pure stupidity, through and through.

[Nepa]

[hmkpoker]

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Let parents teach their kids about drugs since their opinion will probably be more respected than "the government's"

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By that logic, the government should stay out of science, english and history, since a parent's word on these subjects will usually be more respected than the teacher's, even if it's completely wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather see no drug classes than D.A.R.E., but I think that people could benefit from a well-constructed drug course. There is a lot of information about drugs that parents quite simply can't be expected to know. (For example, how many parents would know to tell their children to test themselves for CYP-2D6 deficiency before experimenting with DXM or MDMA?) Some of it is chemistry, some of it is psychology, some of it is social history.

Drug knowledge is more complicated and less intuitive than sex knowledge, which I think IS reasonable to expect a parent to teach a child. I owe three years of safe, and wholly positive recreational drug use to studying it, and I think it's sad to see other kids hurt themselves because they didn't know what they were doing. (ex. "dude, it's been fifteen minutes and this acid stuff isn't working, I think I need another hit")

[hmkpoker]

A friend of mine has a ten-year old who's in the D.A.R.E. program. He brought home his D.A.R.E. handbook and I took a look through it.

It suggests that, if a friend is tripping on shrooms or acid and is having a bad trip, you should call 9-1-1.

Does ANYONE know what a TERRIBLE idea that is!?!?! The kid will be in a shrink's office twice a week for months. That alone is grounds to dismiss the program.

god, I've never done shrooms, but I have been around friends when they did... this might just kill someone.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't shrooms make you uber-gullible?

God, I can't even imagine what would be going through your head with the flashing lights and crap.

[hmkpoker]

Well, I seriously doubt it would kill someone, but it would terrify the living [censored] out of them, possibly enough to cause PTSD to develop.

I suppose "gullible" is one way to put it. A person in the heat of a shroom/acid/insert-random-tryptamine experience is often susceptible to the jedi mind trick...hence why one should only be around those he trusts while under the influence [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[uw_madtown]

I was a DARE role model back in high school. The program definitely sucks and doesn't inform so much as indoctrinate. I didn't drink, smoke, or do illegal drugs in high school at all, and I don't regret that decision, but the ridiculous crap spewed by the DARE program certainly did little to scare most kids away from substance use.

I'm just thankful in retrospect that on the day we came in to talk, our comments basically amounted to "Don't take peer pressure seriously. You won't lose friends by deciding not to drink/smoke/use drugs, and you don't need them to have fun." Which are all true. Certainly didn't spew anything about how one drop of alcohol will RUIN YOU!!!1!