Drugs and kids. A lethal combination anyway you look at it.
As we enter the 21st century, one of the most preventable aspects of social decay in this country is on the rise. This is drug use by America’s children. The best defense America has to keep kids off drugs is education.
In America’s schools, there is a program that attempts to demonstrate the dangers of drug abuse. Drug Abuse Resistance Education, a program that was started in Los Angeles in 1983, puts uniformed law enforcement officers into classrooms to educate children of the dangers of drug use.
The DARE program itself is under attack because of a report by the U.S. Justice Department that says the program “doesn’t achieve its main long-term goal: stopping kids from smoking pot, drinking booze or using other illegal drugs.”
It is for this reason some are arguing the program should be scrapped.
This would be like abandoning a treatment method for a disease if it doesn’t take effect right away.
If anything, the program should be intensified.
A 14-year-old student told a reporter: “After my drug class, all I want to do is light up a joint. All the talk about drugs makes it more tempting.” High-risk kids like this should be identified and given more intensive lessons.
When the children demonstrate a propensity toward drug use, they should be taken to a drug rehabilitation center to see firsthand what people it’s like for people who are getting off drugs go through.
If that doesn’t work, a trip to the morgue would be in order.
San Diego spends $2 million on the DARE program. This includes 24 officers who go to classes to lecture about the dangers of drug use.
If one student at each lecture learns enough to not use drugs, the program almost pays for itself. If that kid does get into drugs, the cost associated with the drug habit, including rehab, possible other crimes committed, prosecution and incarceration would greatly exceed the amount spent on DARE.
Also, parents should be utilized more in the DARE program. Parental involvement can be nothing but a benefit to children to keep them out of trouble, whether that is crime, drugs or any other trouble.
DARE and other anti-drug education programs such as “Just Say No” are needed now more than ever to protect and educate America’s youth.
