Editorial: Dare To End The DARE Program
The DARE program isn't working, and it has to go.
Drug Abuse Resistance Education has been in Suffolk for two decades. It puts cops in the classroom — that's a nice side effect — but it fails at its primary mission: discouraging drug use. Everybody knows that, even the politicians who argue most vehemently to keep it alive. So it's time to end the charade and try a new approach, called HealthSmart.
DARE is popular with parents, who think it creates a bond between kids and police officers; with the officers, who would otherwise be riding patrol cars, and with legislators, because parents like it, and parents vote. Lawmakers also love DARE graduations, which make great photo ops.
But the real question is what happens after graduation. Kids exposed to DARE are not significantly less likely to use drugs than children who don't have DARE. So, in 2001, John Gallagher, then the Suffolk police commissioner, dared to try killing it and ran into a firestorm.
In that atmosphere, the county legislature launched a DARE task force. Its report, like several others, found "no credible evidence that the DARE program is effective in decreasing long-term drug use." It liked police officers as teachers, but said they'd be more effective "in a less rigid, more comprehensive program than DARE."
That alternative wasn't available in the county then. But it is now: a curriculum called HealthSmart. The Department of Health Services contracted with Eastern Suffolk BOCES to run the school component of Suffolk's tobacco control program, and BOCES chose HealthSmart. In 37 school districts, it deals with drugs, is more comprehensive and flexible than DARE and teaches children over a longer period of time. With cops added, it can cover modern threats that didn't exist when DARE began, such as Internet predators.
County Executive Steve Levy and Commissioner Richard Dormer want to kill DARE and enhance HealthSmart by adding cops: 10 full-time officers, instead of the 21 assigned to DARE now. Wisely, the county legislature put off action on a bill to keep DARE going. We know that DARE doesn't work. HealthSmart might. Why not give it a chance? | 
