Pubdate: Thu, 14 Sep 2000
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2000 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washtimes.com/
Author: Joyce Nalepka
Note: Joyce Nalepka is also a founder and president of Drug-Free Youth - 
America's Challenge and was president of the National Federation of Parents 
for Drug Free Youth, the organization chaired by Nancy Reagan during her 
tenure as first lady.
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1354/a03.html

SETTING STRAIGHT MISINFORMATION ABOUT DARE ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS

Bobby Charles' Sept. 8 article "Defending DARE . . . and apple pie" is 
right on target.

Your readers also need to know that the pattern of destruction used by 
proponents of drug legalization is well-documented even in the courts. 
Effective anti-drug programs are not helpful to drug legalizers' goals. 
Their misinformation campaigns frequently make headlines and, we believe, 
they have done immeasurable harm to America's efforts to prevent drug use - 
especially among teens.

Attempts to destroy Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, have been 
particularly vicious, leading DARE to file a $10 million lawsuit against 
writer Stephen Glass, the author of some anti-DARE articles published in 
the New Republic (March 3, 1997) and Rolling Stone (March 5, 1998).

The New Republic fired Stephen Glass when the scandal became public. In a 
review of his work, the New Republic discovered that at least 27 of his 41 
published articles were entirely or partially made up. This was described 
by Vanity Fair magazine as "a breathtaking web of deception that emerged as 
the most sustained fraud in modern journalism."

As part of the agreement to dismiss the libel suit, Glass wrote a letter of 
apology, agreed to a substantial monetary settlement and also agreed to 
submit to an extensive interview by DARE America to answer questions about 
the origins, preparation and editing of his work on DARE.

His January 25, 1999, letter of apology states, "I want to express my 
regret and apology for falsely disparaging DARE in the above-referenced 
articles by willfully fabricating several incidents and quotes about DARE 
and its supporters in the articles, mostly attributed to anonymous sources. 
I did this in order to sensationalize the stories without regard to the 
harm and detriment my fabrications and falsehoods would cause to DARE and 
people affiliated with DARE.

"As the articles reflect, I communicated frequently with people and 
organizations whom I knew to support, and who (in some cases) told me they 
supported, legalization of illegal drugs and were anti-DARE. In preparing 
the articles, I gave credence to what I heard from the anti-DARE people and 
did not credit the information DARE supplied me. Officials at DARE provided 
me with information such as copies of evaluations of the program's 
effectiveness, most of which I discounted and was not ever published in the 
articles.

"I further acknowledge that the March l997 article in The New Republic, 
which contains many of the same fabrications as are in my March l998 
article for Rolling Stone, played a significant role in attracting the 
interest of Rolling Stone and its editors. In editing the Rolling Stone 
article, I referred Rolling Stone's fact-checkers to my prior article in 
The New Republic, or to sources cited therein."

Unfortunately, most who read or hear the pro-drug side of these issues 
never hear the corrections, or in some cases, the corrections are never 
made. We applaud Mr. Charles for his outspoken article and The Washington 
Times for its candid, unbiased reporting on these issues.

Joyce Nalepka, President, America Cares Inc., Silver Spring

Joyce Nalepka is also a founder and president of Drug-Free Youth - 
America's Challenge and was president of the National Federation of Parents 
for Drug Free Youth, the organization chaired by Nancy Reagan during her 
tenure as first lady.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D