TUSCUMBIA OFFICER CHOSEN AS PRESIDENT OF STATE DARE BOARD

Maj. Carol Burns, Of The Tuscumbia Police Department, Is The First Woman
Chosen By Her Peers To Serve As President Of The Alabama DARE Board.

TUSCUMBIA - When Carol Burns started teaching youths about the dangers of
drugs 12 years ago, marijuana, cocaine and alcohol were among the major
problems on the streets.

But today, Burns, a Tuscumbia Police Department major, can rattle off a
long list of types of drugs, including various so-called designer drugs,
that are popular.

Officers in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program across Alabama are
doing all they can to stay ahead of drug dealers in learning about the vast
new types of substances available.

Burns has been chosen to guide those officers through that goal for the
next year.

She has been selected by her peers as president of the Alabama DARE Board.

"It means a lot to me, because I think DARE is working," Burns said.
"Anytime you can warn youths about the dangers of drugs, it's worth it."

The DARE program involves an officer coming into the schools to make young
people aware of the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. It targets
fifth-graders. Burns said the program could be expanded to include
seventh-graders in the near future, possibly as soon as January.

DARE traditionally has been a 16-week program but has been updated and
streamlined, so that it can be taught in 10 weeks, without decreasing the
information it provides.

Burns, the first woman president of the Alabama DARE board since the
program's inception in 1983, said the organization is trying to assist
smaller police departments that have little funding.

"We are considering a scholarship fund to help send officers to our annual
conference, whose departments wouldn't have enough money to do so," Burns said.

The initial goal is to provide four officers scholarships for the 2004
conference.

That weeklong conference provides critical and updated information about
drugs and the DARE program.

Burns said when officers from small departments attend, they become armed
with information when they return to their rural communities.

Burns hopes the 2005 conference will be in the Shoals. She said a state
DARE conference was in Sheffield just a few years ago.

Most officers at that event had never heard of a number of terms discussed
at that conference, including designer drugs and Rave parties.

Generally, designer drugs are substances produced by underground chemists
and sold for drug use. Raves are illegal, all-night parties where the drugs
are sold and used, Burns said.

The officers weren't familiar with those terms at the time because they
were rarities, but speakers at the event said they soon would become widely
known terms on the street. Burns said they were right.

Today, most officers and dealers, as well as many youths, know what they are.

Burns said these drugs, coupled with the old standbys such as marijuana,
make it important for officers to stay updated.

It also is important to warn youths about their dangers, and Burns said
that continues to be the main goal of the DARE program.

"We want to change kids' perceptions of drug use," she said. "We want to
change the favorable attitude toward drug use and their perception of its
dangers.

"A lot of youths don't understand how serious it is and the consequences
involved. These kids are pressured by some of their peers to try drugs.
True friends don't ask you to do that."