D.A.R.E. Fact Sheet

• .In the 20 years since DARE began, studies have consistently shown that DARE has no significant effect on students’ use of drugs.
  
  
• The General Accounting Office of the US Government found “no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received DARE . . . and students who did not.” (1)
  
  
• Estimated costs of DARE annually: $1 to 1.3 billion. (2)
  
  
• In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General placed DARE under the category of “Ineffective Programs.” (3)
  
  
• The National Academy of Sciences has called DARE ineffective. (4)
  
  
• The Department of Education prohibited schools from spending its Safe and Drug-Free Schools money on DARE because they did not consider it effective in reducing drug use. DARE America, the parent organization of the DARE program, has continues to receive money because they are trying to update the curriculum. (5)
  
  
• Problems with the “New” Dare, which was developed by DARE America in response to decades of criticism about the failures of DARE. The new version is being currently being researched for efficacy.
  
  
  

  1. It is fundamentally the same as the original program, with only superficial changes. The same student handbook will be used, with the same messages that do not work. (6)
     
     
  2. Preliminary evaluations have found rates of drug use among students participating in the “New” DARE are the same as the rates among students who are taught using the old, failed DARE. (7)
     
     
• Even DARE America’s president and founding director has admitted the program’s shortcomings. ``There's quite a bit we can do to make it better and we realize that,'' said Glenn Levant. (8)
  
  
• DARE America’s vice-president, Nancy J. Kaufman, has admitted that abstinence-only education is empty rhetoric. “Realistically, people understand that for a great number of adolescents, they might try something at least once.” (9)
  
  
• The head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Dr. Zili Sloboda, noted that DARE is far from the only anti-drug program that does not work, but has drawn the most criticism because it is the largest. (10)

Notes

1. General Accounting Office. Youth Illicit Drug Use Prevention: DARE Long-Term Evaluations and Federal Efforts to Identify Effective Programs,  Jan 16, 2003. (GAO-03-172R)
2. Shepard, Edwards. “The Economic Costs of D.A.R.E.” LeMoyne College Institute of Industrial Relations 22 (Nov. 2001)
3. Zernike, Kate. “Anti-Drug Program Says it will Adopt a New Strategy.” The New York Times 15 Feb. 2001.
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice. DARE Michigan Curriculum Update.
7. University of Akron, “Evaluation of “Take Charge of Your Life:--7th Grade Immediate Short-Term Effects”. Study conducted by The Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Study in association with The Institute for Health and Social Policy at The University of Akron
8. Zernike, Kate. “Dare Drug-Resistance Education called Ineffective, is Being Retooled.” San Jose Mercury News 15 Feb. 2001
9. Zernike, Kate. “Anti-Drug Program Says it will Adopt a New Strategy.” The New York Times 15 Feb. 2001.
10. Zernike, Kate. “Anti-Drug Program Says it will Adopt a New Strategy.” The New York Times 15 Feb. 2001