(Chatham Courier) A $14 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has provided the D.A.R.E. program with new science-based curricula.
The new research and program sprung from the results of numerous studies that indicated the D.A.R.E. program had failed to stop the scourge of alcoholism and drug addiction among youth.
The federal General Accounting Office found, “no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received D.A.R.E. (training) and students who did not.”
The Surgeon General of the United States placed the D.A.R.E. program in the category of “Does Not Work” in 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Despite the failure of D.A.R.E., I would like to see “science-based” drug education for kids in our schools. Some of that science would include the fact that cannabis is “the safest therapeutically active substance known to man”, it is completely non-toxic to cells and organs, it has the lowest rates of dependence among legal and illegal drugs, and the most harmful side effects from it are due to its prohibition.
So, which medical doctor or lab researcher in a white coat will be delivering this “science-based curricula”?
This year’s D.A.R.E. graduation theme was the military.
“We did that to honor the men and women who protect our country,” said Detective Jairo Otalora, Chatham Township Police D.A.R.E. coordinator.
A $500 grant from the Morris County Municipal Alliance enabled the police to mount the fifth grade D.A.R.E. program and its graduation ceremony.
I see. Uniformed police officers leading young people through a military-themed ceremony. Ah, science!
It would be a good use for your time to track the crime stats in the area over a few years to drive home the point doesn’t work their either.Since NV passed its Medical Marijuana bill Oct 2001: teen crime has fallen by almost 2% in five years.
Sounds eerily like the beginning of the Hitler Youth movement…scary shit here…
I have always said that D.A.R.E. is there to teach you about how to make sure you buy the real deal. I was in the D.A.R.E. program when I was a kid and I never heard of anything until they showed me. But at first I believed what they said. “ALL” drugs are bad. After going from cig’s to beer and hard alcohol, I tried pot for the first time. I found out they had lied about pot, “I got way more fucked up off alcohol and I was never addicted to it”. So it made me think they lied about it all and that is where my curiosity got the best of me and I ended up trying everything I could get my hands on. Found out they didn’t lie about how addictive coke can be and had to find myself after awhile. Now I don’t do anything but smoke the greatest plant on earth. I fell that D.A.R.E dose not work because once they lie about the one drug that almost everyone try’s at least once it makes them think it is all a lie. Coupled with the fact that you end up having to get your smoke through a black market drug dealer that also is selling much hardier and more profitable drugs!! This is the reality of prohibition, end this bullshit already. “A military-themed ceremony” what are they Hitler youth!!
I grew up and went to public schools about three towns away from Chatham, NJ.
Wealthy, whitebread area. The amount of drugs those fifth-graders will be consuming in, oh, about five years is just staggering. The kids with the disposable income had access to some serious shit.
It would be safer for everyone if they just stuck to pot.