DARE drug-education programmes

Domain XVI · Historical, discredited & harmful · Daryl Gates · 1983 · Los Angeles

What it is

D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is a school-based substance-use prevention programme, not a therapy. A local government page states it was launched in 1983 in Los Angeles by Police Chief Daryl Gates and the Los Angeles Unified School District; GAO confirms it was "Established in 1983",…

Format

• Curriculum change: a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded revision of middle and high school curricula (University of Akron) added normative beliefs, consequences, small-group work and role-play, and tested officers as "course facilitators rather than as instructors". D.A.R.E. America now offers…
• Clinical work: with adolescents and adults, work on beliefs, norms, credibility of health information, family communication and any substance use, referring to supported treatment where indicated.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• First evidence syntheses (1994): Ennett, Tobler, Ringwalt and Flewelling meta-analysed eight rigorous evaluations and found short-term effects on drug use ranging from .00 to .11 (weighted mean .06), substantially smaller than those of interactive, social-competence programmes.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• measuring only satisfaction; no comparison group. Working: decisions are revisited on data.
• shame increasing during discussion; pace accordingly. Working: less self-stigma, more openness to support.
• defensiveness; certainty beyond the evidence. Working: your advice reads as balanced to people on both sides.
• reassurance from short-term attitude change, which GAO found faded. Working: adverse signals would be noticed.
• treating any listing as proof for your population; cherry-picking. Working: the choice is made on stated criteria.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.