Talk:Drug Abuse Resistance Education

More recent criticism research?

Do we have an evaluation of the effectiveness of the new curriculum? The New York times article referenced states that DARE is going to develop a new curriculum, targeting older children. What are the results of that change? What about the studies of the new system? Dare.org seems to show that the program is in full swing, and they claim that studies have proven its effectiveness. What do critics say?

Move criticism of Original Program into Main Text

Now that DARE has accepted the ineffectiveness of its original program, it seems that we can move that information into the main text, together with a comment that DARE has developed a new program. Seems like since DARE accepted it (finally) it's now Neutral.

Fond memories

Ah, back in the days. . . I remember going through D.A.R.E. several times during elementary school. We kids thought it was the funniest name for a class: all you have to do is expand the acronym as "Drug Abuse [and] Resistance [to] Education"! Many years later, my college buddies and I shared memories of our D.A.R.E. experiences. One young woman, studying to be a mathematician, said that the program had been very counterproductive for her. She had not thought at all about drugs before experiencing D.A.R.E., but she left rubbing her chin and thinking, "LSD, you say?" Anville 09:17, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

D.A.R.E. Turned Me On

There were only three things I (and, I think, everyone in my class) took away from the D.A.R.E. Program:

1. D.A.R.E. told us not to do it. In high school, they told us to stop doing it...

2. Second of all, the officers gave us a tour of their entire (confiscated) stash, the street names for all the shit, and where they (and we) could get all of 'em...

3. They tried to brainwash us with all the cancerous lungs and death statistics (which were collectively depressing enough to drive a man to drink; which it did...); and we fooled around with the drunkgoggles was fun...

Oops, I lied; there was one more thing:

4. They also gave us each an entire order supply's worth of merchandise--D.A.R.E. tshirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, full stationary sets, stickers, and gift certificates...

Basically, the program's totally defunct and a joke beyond belief. Like I said at the beginning, they're turning more kids on to the stuff than off... — Preceding unsigned comment added by WAS (talk • contribs)

• Yeah. DARE is very stupid. I'm in school now and all I am actually learning about drugs is how they are made, where we can find them and how to use them. Drug abuse resistance education. Sheesh.Irish rover 01:49, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Neutrality

I highly question the neutrality of this section. For example: "Many have speculated that police strongly support the program not because it is effective, but rather that police enjoy the interruption of the monotony of other police work." This is evidently a case of original research (see WP:NOR). Where have parents said that there are skits in which kids pretend to be high? Try to find citations for these things. And also, let's make this talk page about improving the article, and not relating about how DARE got you into buying acid. Bibliomaniac15 18:03, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree with you that this article is not neutral, but only marginally so. I also agree that it is unreasonable, in an encyclopedia, to accuse police of escaping boredom and offering no citation for this opinion. Although the person who wrote his personal experience on this talk page expressed his views with hints of radical disgust with the program as well, you are trivializing the insight of his point of view. His radical disgust for the program is by no means uncommon amongst his cohorts--opinions from the the x and y generations, who are the future leaders of the United States and therefore the future source of potential funding for the program -- are grossly more often negative than the relatively conservative views of the baby-boomer generation. If you are going to revise this article, please do not entirely omit all criticisms from the very people that D.A.R.E. did not reach. Rather, state them in a more formal manner and try to derive meaning or substance from their comments. Offer citation to the origin of these comments. Just because these comments are unprofessional does not mean that they came from nowhere. After all, deliberate disregard for these points of view is what has led to decades of reliance on controversial "junk science" or otherwise "marginally sufficient" statistics that, in my opinion, are an excessive attempt to prove what is already obvious to many. Believe me, to those that claim D.A.R.E. was ineffective or counter-effective to their own drug use, the nation's reluctance to acquiesce into the shortcomings and criticism of D.A.R.E. is, indeed, a laughing matter--so many of the voices from that point of view too often express themselves bluntly or humorously. --Devin Keane; the Florida State University College of Social Sciences (12:50 AM EST Mon, Feb. 12, 2007)

I'll work on trying to deal with this problem.In the meantime, why don't you add some favorable material to the page.ThanxJames Halliday 19:05, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

This needs NPOV and a criticism section. 72.224.4.157 03:03, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree that there are far too many weasel words and such in the article, so I added an NPOV tag to the article. I wrote a DARE research paper back in my freshman year, and I'll see if I can dig it up. --Nick2253 23:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I am with you on the NPOV. I tried to shore up some of it, but it seems that the prevailing POV is that DARE is bad. There certainly is plenty of criticism. I added the section about funding to tell why it is under attack. I had changed lots of "children" to "students" and made other revisions as the article at that time seemed to describe A Clockwork Orange and 1984. My guess is that there are a large number of Wikipedia editors that do not like the authoritarianism aspect of the program and need a kinder, gentler approach. Also, as students get older there is a certain amount of cynicism and a feeling of indestructibility. So perhaps the program is no longer effective for teens, they have already made their choices. Certainly there are a large number of parents in our school district who are blissfully unaware that their kids are bogarting their stash or committing crimes to buy meth. Group29 15:07, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The following sentence in the criticism section is problematic for two reasons: "Even though minutes after learning of these poisons, they are told something bad about the drug." For one thing, it is grammatically incorrect as a stand-alone sentence. For another, the writer presupposes that all drugs are posisons. That seems POV--there are many people who would disagree with the argument that alcohol and marijuana are poisons. The sentence could be modified to something like: "Some critics argue that students are more aware of drugs than they were when they entered the DARE program, although officers involved endeavor to stress the dangers of the drugs to students." Any thoughts?

Date is Wrong

The article says that the DARE Program was founded by LAPD Chief Gates in 1994. Gates was no longer Chief in 1994. The DARE website mentions 1984 as the founding of DARE in Los Angeles.

Kingpervis 05:52, 15 December 2006 (UTC)kingpervis

I'd also like to add that the citation for the "In 2003, the department of education concluded that dare was ineffective..." part is from 2001, two years before the article could have known what was going to happen... Kami5909 06:51, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Opinions

It actually works. I went through it in 5th grade, and I've stayed well awayfrom the HARMFUL drugs. Even if you've never thought about drugs before, it WARNS you about the negative effects. I actually am now warned about using harmful substances. Besides, it warns 5th graders about things that may kill them. Dragonlady :)

Speak for yourself. I went through DARE in 5th grade and I love illegal drugs. SockMonkeh 16:49, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Fifth Grade?

The beginning of this article states that DARE is for students only in fifth grade, there are references to high school curriculums later on —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.174.118.196 (talk) 16:09, 11 May 2007 (UTC).

In high school you voulenteer to teach 5th graders if you graduated DARE back in 6th grade and stayed drug-frree.

"Positive effects" (?)

Does anyone know how long there's been an empty "Positive effects" section? Curious.... Maxisdetermined 02:32, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

T-shirt, other unsourced material

Is the claim that the shirt's a "pop culture icon" something requiring a citation? Is that even a verifiable statement in the first place? Much of this article needs sources, such as the new "Positive effects" material. Maxisdetermined 04:41, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Sources

Many of the sources are opinion essays, which do not cite their original sources. I added more detail to a number of the refs, adding authors and so forth. The article really needs to source the original research data that is the basis for the criticism, as all the opinion essays lead back to that. Also, the criticism seems to be somewhat dated, how has D.A.R.E. America changed its program? The article really only makes presumptions as to why the program is as popular as it is. Note that there are huge numbers of city and school district D.A.R.E. program links. There are also large numbers of "X City adopts D.A.R.E." or "X City drops D.A.R.E." articles. Also, there needs to be more information and research data about other programs of proven effectiveness. The article seems NPOV down to the criticism and postive effects section. Group29 02:19, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

This is a copy of a message I left on User talk:David Justin: I never really intended spend that much time with the article. It took way more time than I would have liked. I would say that there is still more reference work to be done. I think links to the scientific data are needed. The programs of proven effectiveness could use references on which programs are actually more effective and why. The article also needs some ref data on why the program is widely used. User:Sefringle placed the ref tag there on May 21, 2007. I will leave a message on the User talk:Sefringle page asking whether or not the ref tag can go. I would say that I have no vested interest in the article otherwise. I merely landed there to document the D.A.R.E. police cars. At the time I placed the copy there, the article had serious NNN N-NPOV problems. There is also occasional vandalism, which I feel like I am the only one correcting.Group29 23:05, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

This is a copy of a message I left on User talk:David Justin: There is evidence to suggest that you are connected with Professor David Justin Hanson, PhD. The writings attributed to Dr. Hanson on the Potsdam.edu site have substantial numbers of references, which would seem to be more connected and a better representation to the position that D.A.R.E. is ineffective. The particular reference to the statement "there is no scientific evidence..." looked like it was picked from a google search on "dare+effective". I give your credit that you put more relevant text in after I made my change that the reference did not support the statement. Based on other Wikipedia contributions, the conclusions I could draw are

a.) You are not actually Dr. Hanson, but agree with his views.

b.) You are not actually Dr. Hanson, but one of his assistants

c.) You are Dr. Hanson, but possibly you have a misunderstanding of/contempt for Wikipedia and do not feed the need to put your already researched references.

d.) You are trolling on this article

No matter what position you represent, my opinion is that Dr. Hanson's work can stand on its own merits and can be referenced effectively in this article. According to his research, there is scientific evidence that D.A.R.E. is ineffective. That should be added and cited as a valuable contribution in the article. Thanks Group29 15:39, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Police officers in the classroom

Still finding that more of the sources in the criticism section are opinion essays with no corroborating references. After reviewing the references, I deleted the section for Police officers in the classroom. It may be a valid concern, if properly referenced, to go in a controversy or concern section not criticism. Group29 16:59, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Note that if classroom volunteers are permitted by the school district, they may not discriminate against a particular person on the basis of occupation. The school district would have to prohibit the program. '"X" do not belong in the "Y"' also becomes an inflammatory statement. Group29 17:03, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

D.A.R.E. vs Rolling Stone

There are a number of criticisms, citing the libel suit dismissal between Rolling Stone and D.A.R.E.

This is the article abstract:

"Federal Judge Virginia A Phillips says she intends to dismiss lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine over article it published in March 1998 about antidrug program DARE, for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, that contained fabrications by its author, Stephen Glass; Phillips says there is no evidence that Rolling Stone knew of Glass's fabrications before article was published and that DARE will not be able to prove Rolling Stone acted with malice or reckless disregard for the truth."

A complete copy of the article is needed to support the statement with the cited text. Also a copy of the case summary would be helpful. Many opinion articles reference this particlar article, but no specific citations are included. There are notable criticisms, but the refs do not support the statements.

Also the RTI research was criticized by National Institute of Justice, the research office for the U.S. Department of Justice, not the D.A.R.E. program according to the Reason Magazine ref. Group29 18:00, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Merger proposal

I put a merger proposal template on the D.A.R.E. T-shirt article page on the basis of overlap and context. See Help:Merging and moving pages. The T-shirt article is only linked from this article, and is covered. Group29 18:03, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Positive effects of D.A.R.E. section

The "Positive effects of D.A.R.E." section needs expansion. Thanks.David Justin 04:39, 23 September 2007 (UTC)