Jeff Sessions Wants To Bring Back D.A.R.E.

[Jimbo101]

Huffington Post

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday strongly advocated for the return of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, or D.A.R.E., the once popular anti-drug program that critics have called ineffective.

But despite Sessions’ advocacy, research over several decades has found that the program didn’t actually make much of a difference in preventing drug use by youth.

“D.A.R.E. does not work to reduce substance use,” a 1998 National Institute of Justice report to Congress reads. “The programs’s content, teaching methods, and use of uniformed police officers rather than teachers might each explain its weak evaluations.”



Bonus quote of the Day from Political Wire

“We had DARE at my school. Nuff said.”

— Former Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL), on Twitter, in response to news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to bring back the anti-drug program DARE.

Radel resigned from Congress after purchasing cocaine from an undercover federal agent in 2014.

[irisblue]

1. Drugs Are Really Excellent also lnown as DARE

Whatta dumbass

[underpants]

5. Yeah it introduced kids to drugs more than it dissuaded them

This is pot. This is what pot does to you.

Some of the kids are sitting there thinking "Damn, that sounds cool!"

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. DARE hasn't really gone anywhere. It's active in my school district.

I'm not a fan because of its abstinence-based approach, lack of scientific backing and reliance on cops as educators (seriously, WTF?). It's PR and little more.

[Solly Mack]

3. I've heard DARE officers make fun of DARE for being stupid.

[MindPilot]

15. Yep; a good friend is a retired cop

She was a school resource officer for a while and ran the DARE program at that school. "Total and complete bullshit" is how she described it in private.

[Solly Mack]

19. Exactly how some described it - Complete BS.

[NightWatcher]

4. If he loves 1980 so much, he should go back to Alabama

The rest of America has no use for him.

[crazycatlady]

7. 1980 was a good year

(Not in every way I know) but don't insult it. I was born that year.

[SoCalMusicLover]

12. Sessions Loves 1880 Even More

Bigot!

[no_hypocrisy]

6. One better:

[Fozzledick]

10. She was so RUDE!

I mean, you can at least say "No thank you".

[BigmanPigman]

8. I taught first and sixth and had DARE for both grades.

For the 6th graders it was boring and kind of a waste of time (at least I got an hour of prep to grade papers). The first graders liked it since they like the police "they are your friends" and their uniforms. police car tour, and stickers of their badges.

The most effective way to do what DARE tries is do is to hold "class meetings" and discuss issues realistically with a guided facilitator on hand too.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. I would say the best way to effectively communicate with kids is to not lie to them.

Don't pretend that marijuana is the same as heroin, or will make your testicles fall off, or get you date-raped, or any of the other bullshit scare tactics they try to use.

Straight up, some drugs are dangerous. Some of them are positively lethal and can kill you- alcohol being a prime example. That actor from True Blood, who just died at 39? Died during alcohol withdrawls. How many kids know that the budweiser ads they see during the superbowl are shilling for a product which can cause life-threatening DTs?

And.... how many people die from cannabis withdrawls? That's right, none.

You want kids to be aware of the real dangers of substances like, say, meth, don't peddle them a whole bunch of nonsense about stuff like weed. Otherwise they'll never believe a word you say.

[Gothmog]

9. That program was around when my kids were in elementary

That was a long time ago

[TBA]

11. To me D.A.R.E.s biggest problem is they lumped all drugs together.

Kids are smart and they figure out there is a difference between heroin and pot. At that point D.A.R.E loses credibility.

My discussions about drugs with my kids honestly presented the level of addictiveness and side effects. They knew pot was relatively harmless but could land you in jail, end your chance for student loans, make your future difficult... etc.

[SoCalMusicLover]

14. Sessions Can't Stand Pot

I'm sure that would be a priority drug under his little pet program.

[EL34x4]

24. What Sessions can't stand are casual drug users whose lives aren't dysfunctional.

He adopts the belief shared by Bill Bennett and former L.A. sheriff Daryl Gates that casual drug users whose lives don't spiral into ruin are the greatest threats in the War On Drugs because they undermine the message that all drugs destroy lives.

[TBA]

33. Yea... they don't all destroy lives.

I don't use anything myself but I know plenty of high achieving professionals who smoke pot.

[EL34x4]

18. And when they learned they were lied to about pot, maybe the rest of it was all BS as well.

After all, if smoking weed didn't ruin your life, maybe shooting heroin won't either?

As an Gen X-er, I remember heroin's resurgence in the late 80s, early 90s and the devastation it wrought. I think a lot of users simply didn't believe it would be that bad.

[Moral Compass]

13. This administration is populated by old white men

I'm constantly struck by how this administration is populated by old white man with old ideas.

So, they are intellectually married to a lot of ideas that have been tried--most of which didn't work.

The "war" on drugs. Supply side economics/massive tax cuts, deregulation, privatization of the commons, and a preference for exploitative extractive industries...

These are old men with old ideas.

They just want to keep digging the hole we are in deeper. It is all that know and all they can imagine.

Power in these hands at this critical time is extraordinarily dangerous.

[MindPilot]

16. You're right.

It seems that our National Motto should be changed to "Let's do more of what isn't working"

[madinmaryland]

20. Well said. I like to say this current gang of billionaires and teabaggers want to take

the country back to the 1890's. The good old days, when billionaires were billionaires and everyone else was fucked.

[panader0]

17. I dared to do drugs.

Most of 'em.

[FSogol]

22. I will DARE

[Initech]

23. Got to keep those for-profit prisons populated!

[GallopingGhost]

25. In Sessions case,

DARE stands for Dipshit Asshole Racist Elf.

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. He also wants to enslave black people again.

[Docreed2003]

27. You know what D.A.R.E taught me in sixth grade Jeff???

All about every freaking street drug available and they even brought examples into the class!! All that taught me was how awesome weed can be!

[Soxfan58]

28. The Dare Officer

Back when my kids were in school was arrested for selling pills and writing bad checks

[lib-ruhl]

29. Not only did

(R-FL) Trey Radel have to resign for being busted for cocaine, he was a big proponent of drug testing welfare recipients before they could receive their money.

F-ing hypocrites every last one of them...

[customerserviceguy]

30. But, wow

they sure funded a bunch of really sporty cop cars!

[ProfessorGAC]

31. As I Recall, DARE Was An Abysmal Failure

Small town DARE schools were shown to higher per capita drug use than inner city and high affluence schools
He probably thinks Prohibition was a roaring success too!

[jmowreader]

32. If he wants an antidrug program, I'll give him one

Teach a block of instruction on cigarettes, one on alcohol, one on cannabis and the last on hard drugs.

Have the four blocks taught by former users.

[TBA]

34. That makes sense.

[jmowreader]

35. Someone explain why having cops teach about drugs is a good idea

Or worse, "peer trainers."

I saw a video, not a parody but a real one, where a high school kid was teaching grade school kids why drugs are bad. The class was as bad as the one Mr. Mackey taught in South Park, but Mr. Mackey was trying to be.

Come on guys, all the twelve step groups require their members to spread the gospel of why you shouldn't use. Take advantage of it.