Pubdate: Sun, 19 May 2002
Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Watertown Daily Times
Contact:  http://www.wdt.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/792
Author: Russell Nelson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

DARE TO CUT PROGRAM

I must support the Watertown City Council in its quest for rational 
expenditures.  I refer, of course, to their desire to cancel the DARE 
program.  DARE certainly sounds like a wonderful idea: "Hey, let's teach 
kids not to use drugs".

But remember when Fleishmann and Pons announced their wonderful discovery 
of cold fusion?  Nobody could reproduce their results, and they were 
laughed out of town.  Well, DARE proponents cannot show that DARE has had 
any effect on the uptake of drugs by its graduates. There's no evidence it 
works.  Researchers have looked, but the drug uptake rate is the same 
regardless of whether a youth experienced the DARE program or not.

I hope that the Watertown City Council rides DARE out of town on a rail.

Russell Nelson

Potsdam (NY)
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