Good news for DARE

School officials, community leaders and parents do lots of worrying about how to keep kids from abusing drugs and alcohol. No sooner is a “revolutionary” method found to teach kids about the dangers of abuse, it seems, than a study comes up to refute its effectiveness. One program, however, is producing the opposite experience: The longer it stays around the better regarded it becomes.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education was created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1983 to teach young children skills they could use to say no to drugs. The program is widespread in Maine, in part because one of its strongest advocates is Bangor Police Officer Dan Frazell, who is currently serving as president of the National DARE Association. DARE, however, also has been criticized over the years — detractors say it is a very expensive program that does not result in reduced amounts of drug abuse.

Much of the criticism has been based on anecdote and rumor. A recent study from Ohio State University became the first to analyze the effect of DARE on students who attended multiple semesters of the program. It suggests that critics should take a second look. Researchers at the university surveyed 3,150 high school juniors and that those who completed two or more semesters of the DARE program were 50 percent less likely to become high-risk abusers of drugs and alcohol, compared with students who were not exposed to the program.

The lead researcher, Dr. Joseph F. Donnermeyer, is clear: The study “was not an attempt to test for a causal relationship between participation in prevention education activities and substance abuse.” Instead, it provides “an opportunity to examine a possible association between participation in multiple prevention education activities and current use.”

Whether a relationship between DARE and the 50-percent reduction exists is the topic for another study. The good news is that this long-standing program may be more effective than many people have given it credit for. A side bonus: the Ohio State study also found that DARE graduates had significantly more respect for police officers than do their peers without DARE training. That’s worth quite a bit in itself.