LOCAL POLICE RESPOND TO CRITICS OF DARE LEGALIZING POT NOT THE ANSWER - GLADUE

Is The DARE Program Really Helping To Keep Kids Off Drugs?

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program has come under heavy criticism
in recent years by those who think the police take the wrong approach to
drug prevention when talking to students.

U.S. schools are dropping the program designed for students from Grade 5 to
junior high as heroin use among high school seniors reaches record levels.
When The Observer published a more optimistic portrayal of the program last
month, anti-DARE letters poured in from Ottawa and Washington.

Critics say the drug education isn't based in reality and may backfire when
kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among peers.

They say police use scare tactics that do more harm than good.

"Students who realize they are being lied to about marijuana often make the
mistake of assuming that harder drugs are relatively harmless as well,"
wrote Robert Sharpe of the Washington, D.C.-based Lindesmith Centre-Drug
Policy Foundation.

But RCMP who are implementing the program in Canadian schools say police
aren't using scare tactics, and are just showing the harmful effects of drugs.

Teaching kids the supposed harmful effects of smoking weed, such as memory
loss and lung damage, is justified, DARE proponents say.

DARE teachers are thus standing on the front lines of a battle with those
who want to legalize or decriminalize marijuana.

Constable Dean Gladue, who runs North District Drug Awareness Services out
of Prince George, claims pot shouldn't be legalized because the move would
create social problems on a scale comparable to alcohol, a legalized drug.
Gladue adds that DARE is about more than drugs, and teaches children life
skills.

Besides teaching kids ways to say no to drugs, DARE shows them how to deal
with bullying and maintain self-esteem, Gladue says.

He says DARE isn't the "end all, be all" solution to drug use.

"It's just another tool kit for kids to use. DARE is just like driver
training or swimming lessons. Swimming lessons do not ensure you'll be a
great swimmer," Gladue says.

But it is not just the education strategies some DARE critics have a
problem with, they don't want police in schools imposing their political
agenda. They say drug use is a medical problem, not a criminal one.

Okay, Gladue says, there are arguments that drug use is a disease, but at
the end of the day police are taking a stand against drug-related crime.
"We see the black market, the violence on the street. It's not just the
drug use itself, but a whole string of activities that come with it," he
says. Gladue says filling jails won't fix those problems, thus more
treatment programs and prevention programs like DARE are greatly needed.