NEWSLETTER!!!!
INDIAN EDUCATION FORUM
August 3, 1999/ORP/P.O. Box 734/Pablo, MT/(406) 675-8340
"My Crow people should get education; for, with it they are the White Man's equal, and without it, they are his victim."....Chief Plenty Coups 1928
Drug program's effectiveness negligible, study says
Copyright © 1999 Nando Media
Copyright © 1999 Associated Press
By JAMES RITCHIE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (August 3, 1999 7:59 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - The drug education program DARE, used at schools across the country, has little effect on whether children use drugs, alcohol or cigarettes, a new study suggests.
Donald R. Lynam and other researchers at the University of Kentucky tracked more than 1,000 students in Fayette County who participated in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in the sixth grade.
The students were re-evaluated at age 20, 10 years after their involvement with the program.
DARE resulted in some initial improvements in the students' attitudes about drug use, the researchers said. But those changes failed to last, and they did not influence the decisions the students made.
Calls to Inglewood, Calif.-based DARE America for comment Monday were not returned.
Lynam said the results of the study, published in the August issue of the American Psychological Association's Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, replicate the findings of several other recent studies.
"I think it's surprising how widespread DARE is given the lack of hard data suggesting it is effective," said Lynam, who noted the study was conducted on the earliest version of DARE and modifications have been made to the curriculum.
DARE was started in 1983 in Los Angeles. An officer teaches 17 lessons in the classroom, usually for an hour a week.
About 80 percent of U.S. school districts have the programs. But in the last few years, cities across the country, including Seattle, Houston, Omaha, Neb.; and Rochester, N.Y., have dropped DARE in the wake of critical studies.
One reason DARE might not be effective, Lynam said, is that it emphasizes the role of peer pressure in drug use. He said many youths might be motivated by other factors, such as curiosity or thrill-seeking.
And DARE may teach children drug resistance skills years before they need them, he said. While the program was administered in the sixth grade, most drug use begins in high school.
Reprinted under the Fair Use
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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