PETRO SAYS ALL DARE PROGRAMS TO BE FULLY FUNDED

MOUNT VERNON -- Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has announced that
his office will fully fund all law enforcement agencies in Ohio that
participate in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program for the
2005-06 school year.

That announcement came as welcome news to Knox County Sheriff David Barber.

"It definitely helps the county out and we rely on it quite a bit,"
said Barber. "The grant funding pays up to 50 percent of one of our
DARE officer's pay and benefits for the nine-month school year. It
averages about $20,000 per year for us.

"We have two full-time DARE officers," he added. "We have the program
in every elementary school in the county and also in the majority of
the middle schools and some of the high schools."

According to the DARE Web site, the program "teaches kids how to
recognize and resist the direct and subtle pressures that influence
them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs."

The Knox County Sheriff's Office has asked for and received the grant
for years, but the recent state budget crunch concerned some law
enforcement agencies. Barber said the DARE grant money comes from a
percentage of license reinstatement fees from OVI offenders; some
were concerned that this percentage may be diverted elsewhere.

Petro's announcement puts those fears to rest for this year, dishing
out more that $3.5 million to 216 law enforcement agencies in 66
counties. Of the 216 agencies funded, 50 are sheriff's offices and
166 are police departments.

"I sincerely thank all of the dedicated men and women within the Ohio
law-enforcment community for their commitment to the DARE program,"
said Petro in a written statement. "With the knowledge our children
receive through DARE, they are better prepared to keep themselves
drug and alcohol free."

Barber said that without the state, the Knox County DARE program
would likely have to be cut down in some way.

"As restrictive as my budget is, without that funding we probably
would not have the program in all of the schools," he said. "And we
probably would not have two DARE officers."