cannabisnews.com: Salt Lake City Drops D.A.R.E. 





Salt Lake City Drops D.A.R.E. 
Posted by FoM on November 04, 2000 at 18:33:18 PT
By Dan Baum
Source: Rolling Stone
On July 11th, Salt Lake City Mayor Ross "Rocky" Anderson cut off funding to D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), ending the city's thirteen-year association with the controversial drug-education program. The mayor, who summoned a high-ranking D.A.R.E. official to Utah for a last-chance opportunity to defend the program, says he was unmoved by the official's discussion of changes being made. At the meeting, which took place with the school superintendent, D.A.R.E. officers and other policemen, Anderson said, "I think your organization has been an absolute fraud on this people of this country. 
For you to continue taking precious drug-prevention dollars when we have such a serious and, in some instances, growing addiction problem is unconscionable." The official soon got up and left. "These people aren't used to being talked to like that," says Anderson. Now used in eighty percent of U.S. school districts, D.A.R.E. reaches some 26 million American children and another 10 million students in fifty-two other countries, and the number may be growing. But both liberal- and conservative-minded cities have begun to give D.A.R.E. the boot. School districts in Minneapolis, Austin, Seattle, Omaha, Nebraska, and elsewhere have dropped D.A.R.E. in the past few years. Anderson's opposition to D.A.R.E., however, is part of a broader concern he has about harm done by the nation's War on Drugs. At a shadow convention in Los Angeles, he suggested that "there ought to be dialogue about decriminalizing marijuana." Anderson, a boyish forty-nine, made his reputation as an ACLU-backed attorney suing the state prison and the Salt Lake City police for brutality. Elected last fall, he supports gay marriage, abortion rights and stronger gun control, and opposes the death penalty. That someone of Anderson's politics leads the capital of one of the most politically conservative states is not so anomalous: Salt Lake City hasn't had a Republican mayor in twenty-nine years. Despite the fact that D.A.R.E. and its followers can be zealous in defense of the organization (it unsuccessfully sued ROLLING STONE; the case is currently on appeal), Mayor Anderson's decision to cut off funding generated little substantive controversy. The police department - which has returned its four fulltime D.A.R.E. officers and their cars to regular patrol - was officially neutral. Members of the school board felt they should have been more fully consulted, but nobody mounted a spirited defense of the program. "My seven kids liked D.A.R.E.," says school board president Kathy Black, a Republican member of one of Utah's oldest Mormon families. But, she says, "I'm more eager to have a program that works than stick to any one thing for the wrong reasons." Black's "wrong reasons" might include a combination of bureaucratic ease and old-fashioned PR. School administrators and teachers are partial to D.A.R.E., according to a University of Kentucky study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, because it doesn't cost very much (funding usually comes through the police), it makes the school feel safer when an armed police officer is present, and it gives teachers an hour-long break. Police like D.A.R.E. because it lets them connect positively with young people, and parents like it because, with its high profile, D.A.R.E. makes it easy to believe something is being done to keep kids off drugs. It has not been shown, however, that the program actually works. A raft of peer-reviewed studies, one spanning ten years, have demonstrated that current and former D.A.R.E. students are as likely to use drugs as those who never took the course. D.A.R.E. declined to speak with ROLLING STONE. To replace D.A.R.E., Salt Lake City will now adopt Prevention Dimensions and ATLAS (which focuses on steroid avoidance). But they and all programs for which schools can secure federal funding share the same philosophy as D.A.R.E.: They preach absolute abstention from illegal drugs. This represents a stark difference from federally funded sex-ed programs, which, since the onset of AIDS, have encouraged abstinence but also may instruct teens about safer sex. Even though roughly half of all high school students experiment with both sex and marijuana, kids benefit from knowledge about responsible sex, but don't learn about safer ways to encounter drugs, other than to "say no." "We're not sure exactly what might work, because there has been no opportunity to investigate and evaluate responsible-use programs - that's according to the General Accounting Office," says Dr. Joel Brown, director of the Center for Educational Research and Development at the University of California at Berkeley. "Which isn't to condone using drugs, but the primary objective should be to protect the health and safety of young people." Drug czar Barry McCaffrey is adamant that only abstinence programs get federal funding. "Are we going to encourage kids to use drugs in school? Hell, no," says his spokesman, Bob Weiner. "Parents would go through the roof, and rightfully so." Anderson counters, "It would be preferable to keep kids from doing drugs, but we're not going to do that in all cases. For them we ought to do what we can to reduce the harm for everybody." Dan Baum wrote "Bush and Guns: The Art of the Double Deal" in RS 844/845. Note: Maverick Mayor Rocky Anderson Calls The School Anti-Drug Program " An Absolute Fraud "Source: Rolling Stone (US) Author: Dan Baum Published: November 23, 2000Copyright: 2000 Straight Arrow Publishers Company, L.P. Section: National Affairs Page: 58 Address: 1290 Avenue of the AmericasNew York, NY 10104-0298 Fax: (212) 767-8214 Contact: letters rollingstone.com Website: http://www.rollingstone.com/ Related Articles:Anderson Calls D.A.R.E. A Fraudhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6139.shtmlCannabisNews D.A.R.E. Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/DARE.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Ross "Rocky" Andersonhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Rocky+Anderson
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Comment #3 posted by MikeEEEEE on November 05, 2000 at 07:26:35 PT
absolute fraud on this people of this country
He couldn't have said it better. Horay for the open minded.
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Comment #2 posted by dddd on November 05, 2000 at 00:04:57 PT
unusual
 Gotta say that it's suprizing to see this guy 'Rocky',with his views,in the mayors office of SLC. Willie Nelson once said about SLC; "Narrow streets,and narrow minds"......dddd 
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Comment #1 posted by AOCP on November 04, 2000 at 21:21:09 PT:
rants r us
>Even though roughly half of all high school students experiment with both sex and marijuana, kids benefit from knowledge about responsible sex, but don't learn about safer ways to encounter drugs, other than to "say no." Moralizers just HATE being told they're goofing up. It fractures their incredibly fragile egos something fierce.>"We're not sure exactly what might work, because there has been no opportunity to investigate and evaluate responsible-use programs - that's according to the General Accounting Office," says Dr. Joel Brown, director of the Center for Educational Research and Development at the University of California at Berkeley.And over the dead (or at least injured) bodies of the DEA, FBI, CIA, BATF, police forfeiture, booze and cig manufacturers, etc.>"Which isn't to condone using drugs, but the primary objective should be to protect the health and safety of young people." Well, we have two models to draw from at this point. Which one, in your opinion, helps to "protect the health and safety of young people" better: regulation (as flawed as it currently may be) in the vein of alcohol and tobacco or prohhibition (as flawed as it IS) a la MJ? Why doesn't anyone answer this simple question? Afraid of the gears going in another direction or what?>Drug czar Barry McCaffrey is adamant that only abstinence programs get federal funding. "Are we going to encourage kids to use drugs in school? Hell, no," says his spokesman, Bob Weiner. "Parents would go through the roof, and rightfully so."Of course not. We (the ondcp) completely make up some horrific scenario that no rational drug policy reformer would advocate! Thank goodness the majority of this country are easily-led sheep or we might have to actually WORK for our bread. Keep a tight eye out for heroin coming to cereal store shelves soon. Unbelievable.
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