Analysis Of D. A. R. E.: Drug And Alcohol Resistance Education

The D.A.R.E. (Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education) program is a school-based drug abuse prevention program that is administered in 75% of US school districts and in 52 countries. Since the D.A.R.E. was created in 1983 more than 200 million students have taken part in this program worldwide. It is estimated that the program costs over $1 billion annually to implement nationwide. Because of all these facts one would believe that this program is a good thing to have in place at school for preventing drug usage but it is likely that that may not be the case. It has been proven that graduates of the D.A.R.E. program show no long-term increase in knowledge of drugs, attitudes about drug use, social skills, or attitudes toward the police, students don’t like the program, it causes children to ignore other information about the effects of drugs and most importantly the program just doesn’t decrease and sometimes even increases usage of drugs and alcohol. …show more content…
program teaches to students. Any positive effects that could be gained from this program are small and disappear in around one or two years. The D.A.R.E program is only for a few months and is not long enough to teach lessons that stick with kids for more than a few years. Programs that have been shown to be more effective take place over years and “provide students with lessons that are reinforced over time”. When the program is at its most effective the best it can do is delay drug usage but not prevent