USA - Students learn how to say no to drugs

[Bajeda]

hahaha, I remember D.A.R.E. back in the day. We watched some cartoon with some recognizable characters in it like Garfield and a bunch of other popular cartoons, though I don't remember them. All I could think of (this was 5th grade) was that marijuan and lsd sounded really cool and I wondered if they were as cool as the video made them seem. good job D.A.R.E., use a colourful almost psychedelic video to teach about how bad drugs are...

[Police Officer]

I teach DARE, and I find it sad that it's such a joke. I take it very seriously because I have to deal with the children of meth addicted parents everyday.

[Powder_Reality]

SWIM agrees that it's not right for children to have to deal with addict parents, but that doesn't have anything to do with DARE. SWIM agrees that drugs can have a terrible effect on someone's life if used improperly and irresponsibly, but does that justify spreading lies to small children in an attempt to scare them away from drugs? It's a statistical fact that children who take DARE in school are just as likely to do drugs as those who don't. In most of the cases that SWIM has read on the internet, people say that after they took DARE in school, they were more intrigued to try drugs.

Since DARE programs seem to have no impact on children, SWIM believes that schools should stop wasting so much money on the program and start teaching scientifc facts about drugs (and not to young children, more towards junior-high students). We can't stop teenagers from doing drugs. A large percentage of teenagers enjoy altering their conciousness, and obviously these anti-drug programs aren't going to stop them from doing so.

In SWIM's opinion, schools should teach scientific facts about drugs in order to educate, not to try to scare them away from drugs. If students know the real facts about drugs, they can make educated decisions about whether they want to experiment or not, and being educated about them could help save lives. What if a student tried marijuana (as many do) and realized that all the "facts" that the DARE officer told him about marijuana were false. He might start to think that all the other "facts" that the DARE officer told him were false as well. Maybe he would think that meth was completely harmless as well. This could lead to the student using the drug irresponsibly and developing a serious addiction.

So although SWIM believes that students should be educated about drugs, he doesn't think that they should have to be subjected to being fed lies and half-truths about drugs. They're smarter than that.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Hell, yeah... exactly

[wednesday]

Originally Posted by Police Officer

I teach DARE, and I find it sad that it's such a joke. I take it very seriously because I have to deal with the children of meth addicted parents everyday.

it is a joke simply because when i was in the dare program they didn't give us facts and they treated us like babies
you are trying to make our minds up for us
thats trying to play with free will
even the most powerful beings in the world cannot truely bend free will
only use tactics to scare
how would you feel being lied to about something the whole time you grow up and then finding out the truth
i completely agree with a drug program the more kids know about them the better choices they can make
but it has to be just that a choice
just tell them the truth you will get a much better response

[pokeymcsmot421]

we all find it sad that d.a.r.e is such a joke also.....believe me.

Maybe if they didnt continue to lie, makeup statistics, quote disproven studies, and use scare tactics it wouldnt be such a damn joke. I mean lets face it, noone likes being lied to and manipulated.

Drugs like meth are bad enough where if you guys just came with the straight truth, you'd have a much better case than attempting to demonize all drugs on the same level. A distinction between hard and soft drugs is absolutely neccessary, is it not?

The D.A.R.E program has been proven to be one of the most inneffective tactics ever used against the war on drugs, and will continue to be as long as they dont straighten up.

By the way what did I learn in d.a.r.e, well I learned Marijuana causes lung cancer (it doesnt, run a search), that heroin causes aids, psychedelics make you see your favorite cartoon characters, and that drug dealers will attack you chase you down and force you to do there drugs.

More importantly what I learned from D.A.R.E. was that my government is completely full of shit, immoral, has no problem lying to children, and is generally not to be trusted.........definatly not the message your shootin for.

[bewilderment]

Originally Posted by pokeymcsmot421

Drugs like meth are bad enough where if you guys just came with the straight truth, you'd have a much better case than attempting to demonize all drugs on the same level. A distinction between hard and soft drugs is absolutely neccessary, is it not?

There's not even a real distinction in law between hard and soft drugs, I mean meth and coke are schedule II's while marijuana and many hallucinogens with low toxicity and no known deaths of overdose are a schedule I. It's ridiculous. If I didn't know anything and was just looking at the law then I would assume that marijuana is a harder drug that meth and if I'd already tried marijuana then why not try something in the lower levels?? Yeah, DARE only piqued my interest in drugs as did all of my drug education. SWIM first used drugs by looking up frequently abused prescriptions in her health book and then rummaging through her mother's purse. But hey, I loved that education

[fatmanstan]

It's not even just the DARE program taught to children either. SWIM lives in a place he would call relatively untouched by meth (yet). At a conference given by his employer, one of the speakers were LE giving "facts" about drugs, specifically meth. One of SWIMs favorite lines was that meth users will often pick their own scabs and smoke them or concentrate their urine and smoke that because they know there are traces of the drug in them and they are so desparate for the drug. Man, I never knew you meth addicts had it that tough.

Next were the pictures (eeg's) of the "holes that drugs burn into your brain like coke or meth or LSD". Love how they described them as, and I quote "actual photos of your brain after you've done drugs". What drugs, coffee, ibuprofin, sugar? Drugs are absolutely dispicable (except the ones we take a commission for, tobacco, alcohol, phamaceuticals).

I'm sorry, mid-20's to late-30's are about as likely to believe this type of drivel as, hopefully, an elementary school student. Absolutely people should know the truth, the straight facts. Maybe the ecstasy deaths attributed to drowning by water over-consumption or hyperthermia wouldn't occur if people knew more about the risks of heat stroke. Maybe that girl who wanted to "abort" a roll by drinking gallons of water would have known better.

There should be truth in a house of learning.

[Nagognog2]

Maybe that is what we are, or might be, trying to do here: Provide real, factual information to those who come looking for it. Though the D.A.R.E crowd would push us aside and mutter "Druggie Idiots!" at us, there is another name for what this place is really about. It is Harm Reduction.

Those who spread disinformation that, through negligence and blindness, are causing harm and injury to those they claim to be helping should be brought up on legal charges.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Yup.

[CrystalDextro]

Our government will use propaganda to scare children, positive education?? or getting results the most effective way for political gain. I learned that our gov. will use propaganda to possibly (program?) our youth

Reputation Comments on this post:

Very muffled post. Hard to understand and doesn't really go anywhere.

[Akewstick]

I don't want to get into a debate about wether drugs are good or bad and wether or not we should be getting children to stay away from them, we all have our opinions on that.

I think the main reason (in SWIM's experience in the UK at least) that drug "education" dosen't work as a deterrant is quite simple. Kids grow up learning all the bad points about drugs, they learn how many people die, how horrible withdrawals can be, what drug dealers will do to settle a debt and all the diseases they can catch.

The part that they often don't get told about is the reasons people do drugs. Drugs are great fun, shooting speedballs is incredible for every moment up until the one that kills you or you realise you're hooked. Kids don't know about this, and as a result, they leave school thinking that drugs are bad, and they know everything there is to know about the negatives, and none of the positives.

Then they go out and smoke a joint or drop an E, and they have a great time. Suddenly, they think "Nobody told me it was this much fun, and if they didn't tell me about this, what else didn't they tell me about? And what might they have lied to me about?" In that instant, everything they've learned about drugs goes out the window, because they've been told it by people who've been proven to be dishonest.

This is the reason Marijuana is called a Gateway Drug, because it's the drug that open's kids eyes to how much bullshit they've been fed, or at least to the fact that they've only been given half the story.

I don't think there's a clear solution for the education system to keep kids off drugs, but if they really wanted to, they'd spend a little bit of time explaining that drugs are an easy way to have bags and bags of fun, and then emphasise that it was never worth it.

But then, would kids still stay away from drugs? If you think not, you might need to evaluate wether we should really want them to.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	good post
	good subject to talk about!
	very good post.swim has very similar opinions on the matter.
	Excellent post.

[Miss_Methylene]

This post is very honest. SWIM is still young and knows exactly where this post is coming from. SWIM remembers back in 5th grade when the 'local' DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer would come in every week and lecture about drugs and alcohol. Everything that SWIM and her friends have ever heard about drugs and alcohol while growing up was nothing but bad news. Ofcourse, in a way..SWIM understands why a parent or DARE officer would want to teach kids to not grow up and use drugs themselves, because in the end, anyone abusing drugs is in some way hurting there body. But, like you stated above..when a teenager does go out and smoke cannabis, they realize that they are not hurting anyone, execpt possibly themselves in the long-run, and realize there is a new way to feel "even better".
I do think that Drug Education is important in school, very important..but if they are going to teach Drug Education, then there is a need to incorporate every aspect of drugs..the GOOD and the BAD. We need to not only teach children how drugs effect the body (in a bad way) but also teach children why people do drugs in the first place. And not only becuase they are in a "desperate need of feeling better" but also for reasons such as: experimenting with your own body, achiving a greater sense of well-being, and for for gaining self-knowledge about a certian substance.
We need to teach children how people experience "high's" off drugs which are amazing and also how people experience "lows or come-down's" from the drugs as-well. We need to teach the honest truth, not just lies so that kids don't even want to touch drugs..because in the end, most children are going to end up trying drugs or alcohol for one reason or another.
This is also why Cannabis is known greatly as a "gateway drug", who exactly started that anyways? How do they know? Did they try smoking Cannabis and then automatically have a craving to try cocaine or methamphetamine? I highly doubt it, because that is not the way it works!

[Trebor]

"What we need to do is to be totally honest with our children about drugs. We shouldn't have to say, I'd love to get you loaded so wait until the kids are gone to bed" Terennce McKenna

As Swim grew up in Ireland Swim was always told that what Swim did had negative results (Catholic country you see) so when Siwm found out about these wonderful substances Swim was first very anti them. SO when a guy came to Swim's school to tell Swim about how they ruined his life and how he had found peace from God, Swim knew there was someting up. Swim was 15 at the time and an atheist. So when Swim first took drugs, cannabis was the first, then mushrooms, then Salvia, he was amazed every time. He recognises that some drugs are useless like heroin and coke(sorry if I'm raining on anybodys parade). SO Swim believes that you can only help kids to understand drugs by telling them of all aspects of them.

[fatmanstan]

SWIM was lucky enough to have never been fed the DARE bullshit. In his little school, things were a little more honest. Drug education was very very minimal, just a couple of times during "Health" class, which was more of a fusion between fitness, sex ed, hygiene and drugs. SWIM's teacher for this subject was obviously experienced in drugs, mostly psychedelics. SWIM remembers vividly during one class discussion, LSD and genetic damage was mentioned as a question of true or false. Most people in the class guessed true. The teacher told the class that this was completely false, and that the rumors circulating in the 60's and 70's about LSD causing chromosome damage was what prevented him from trying it back then.

Of the people in that class, as far as SWIM knows, not one has turned into a junky burnout.

[I Hate Windows]

SWIM was never lucky enough to to get to the good laugh from dare either but he still had health class which talked about drugs and all the stupid bullshit lies they fed you. Take LSD 7x or more and your legally insane etc, good times, good times

[dnb warrior]

it doesnt work because it is scare tacticts not education.

Reputation Comments on this post:

perfect

[Cure20]

Originally Posted by dnb warrior

it doesnt work because it is scare tacticts not education.

Well said!

[Akewstick]

it doesnt work because it is scare tacticts not education.

Those are exactly my thoughts on it, but I didn't say it because it sounds even more biased towards drugs than my post did anyway.

But yeah, this is my opinion on "drug education" entirely, very succinct.

[leafySeaDragon]

Funny story about D.A.R.E

Once upon a time, SWIM was a little 5th grader. She went through the D.A.R.E [drugs abuse resistance education] program, and was a prized student for her participation in role-playing activities.

At the end of the program, she was the only one selected out of all 50 kids to give a speech about how important D.A.R.E was and how much she learned about the dangers of drugs.

Several years later, SWIM didn't follow her own speech that well ;-).

SWIM got a special D.A.R.E medal for giving that speech. She keeps it hanging on the mirror in her car.

[Nagognog2]

Sort of like drunks who plaster their cars with "Support Your Local Police" bumper-stickers?

[leafySeaDragon]

haha, exactly!
SWIM still has the D.A.R.E logo baseball cap they gave her, and it's really comfy so she wears it a lot in the summertime.

SWIMs parents still have the video, too. The funniest quote is the last line:

"All thanks to D.A.R.E, I will be drug free forever!!" . Then little SWIM punched the sky, empowering the audience... P

[Donmeka]

Originally Posted by leafySeaDragon

Then little SWIM punched the sky, empowering the audience... P

I'm in tears right now hahahaha

[Senor Gribson]

Even if drug "education" never attempts to highlight the positives of illegal drug use, which is most likely, what should be covered is the specific dangers of specific drugs. I kind of remember the drug talks in high school; when they talked about dangerous effects of drugs, not the dangers of amateur meth labs and the like, they just lumped every illegal drug into the same category and told us the same misc dangers. (they also told us how to refine opium, which looking back i think was completely unnecessary)

Anyway my point is that these education programs should realize that no matter how hard they hammer the "drugs are bad" ideas into peoples heads, eventually they will question this. That's why they should discuss things like LD50, set and setting, test kits, etc. That would make a much more effective drug education program.

They can't prevent drug use, they should at least try to promote RESPONSIBLE drug use. Drug education promotes ignorance and educates no-one.

[Nagognog2]

"They can't prevent drug use, they should at least try to promote RESPONSIBLE drug use. Drug education promotes ignorance and educates no-one."

I disagree. Programs like D.A.R.E. do, indeed, serve to educate kids. Just not in the way the mental-pygmies who designed it had intended. It serves to teach kids to distrust any and all authority and it promotes cynicism. Arguably, these can be very useful lessons.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

"They can't prevent drug use, they should at least try to promote RESPONSIBLE drug use. Drug education promotes ignorance and educates no-one."

I disagree. Programs like D.A.R.E. do, indeed, serve to educate kids. Just not in the way the mental-pygmies who designed it had intended. It serves to teach kids to distrust any and all authority and it promotes cynicism. Arguably, these can be very useful lessons.

Quite so.

Just as taking US History in an American school while growing up in the Middle-East totally eliminated any chance that swim would accept history at face value ever again.

From as early as elementary swim knew something was wrong when the class covered the US - Middle-East relations part of the textbook and it was nothing like what he knew to be the truth.

Swim didn't trust DARE before he even got to it.

[Female]

You can't stop people from being curious.
A lot of what everyone has already said is a lot of what I'd say, and this is a very good topic to get into. SWIM is, right now, enrolled in a class that on the syllabus has as homework and a project labled; "teach the class about the dangers of illegal drug usage", which makes SWIM roll her eyes. Kids should be taught the dangers that could happen if you don't use responsibly, if you were caught in that situation. The dangers of drug abuse is always lumped into one category, so one would think they'd die and get fat and get the munchied from smoking crack, instead of the negative side effects that are linked to specific drug abuse.
Kids are taught definite and finite things, and when you're that young, you don't want to know ANYTHING that is finite and definite, you want to live forever and feel like you will, so some fat man in a uniform is the last thing to influence you to stay away from drug usage. Most kids already hate teachers, police dudes are just the next step to distrusting authority.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good post