Pubdate: Sat, 03 Aug 2002
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2002 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Greg Toppo, AP Education Writer

STUDY FAULTS SCHOOLS' ANTI-DRUG PROGRAMS

WASHINGTON -- The top three programs used by schools to keep students away 
from drugs are either ineffective or haven't been sufficiently tested, new 
research suggests. In a study being published today in Health Education 
Research, a journal for educators, researchers from the University of North 
Carolina at Chapel Hill say many schools are using popular programs such as 
D.A.R.E., Here's Looking at You 2000 and McGruff's Drug Prevention and 
Child Protection, which haven't shown the kind of results that schools 
should expect, despite years of use.

"It's not a very good use of taxpayer money," said Denise Hallfors, now a 
substance abuse prevention researcher at the Pacific Institute for Research 
and Evaluation, a nonprofit group. She was at the University of North 
Carolina when she conducted the research.

The study found that, in spite of a decade of efforts from the federal 
government to promote proven programs, many schools still use "heavily 
marketed curricula that have not been evaluated, have been evaluated 
inadequately or have been shown to be ineffective in reducing substance abuse."

The most popular, D.A.R.E., Drug Abuse Resistance Education, was created by 
police officers in Los Angeles in 1983 to teach children about the dangers 
of drugs. More than 50,000 officers have been trained nationwide and the 
program is being implemented in 80 percent of school districts.

Charlie Parsons, executive director of D.A.R.E. America, said the research 
in Hallfors' study refers to D.A.R.E.'s old curriculum, which is no longer 
used.

He also noted that D.A.R.E. officers get two weeks of training, unlike many 
other programs, which are run by for-profit organizations.

"The strength of D.A.R.E. is that the implementation and the fidelity 
always gets high marks, because of the training involved," he said.
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