What happen to JUST SAY NO and the DARE PROGRAM

[Anonymous]

A lot of drugs have been legalized. I think the school board members would prefer saying yes to drugs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s still around in schools but now it’s called FADE (Friends Against Drug Exposure).

If someone try to give you drugs, punch them in the face! Did you know shrooms hurt your tummy? Get your little hands up!

https://youtu.be/x9NiOhJ85ro

I was waiting for someone to post this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was very scared of drugs thanks to DARE and the storyline in 90210 when Kelly is instantly addicted to cocaine!

What about the Saved By the Bell episode where Jessie gets addicted to caffeine?

“I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so… scared.”

Philistines. All of you. Here's the original warning (long, and wow - what a lot of talent there was on that show including the guest star). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmCYaZFjwtM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of drugs have been legalized. I think the school board members would prefer saying yes to drugs.

It's depressing how people are mocking this (not referring to you PP but for people who think that teaching kids to say no to drugs is a joke). DH just got back from trip in Washington where he met with schools, substance abuse counselors/clinics and law enforcement. So many kids are hooked on hard drugs and many of them are in elementary school. Washington, like many states on the west coast legalized hard drugs and the result has been an astronomical increase in kids hooked on drugs. Progressives (and I am a progressive just not when it comes to legalization) keep mentioning Portugal as a model. But Portugal never legalized drugs, it decriminalized them. It also mandates treatment. Drug legalization advocates in the United States don't believe in mandated treatment at all. The result is an inhumane society where people, including kids are addicts and can't get out of the addiction cycle. People can administer Narcan all they want (and don't get me wrong, Narcan saves lives) but eventually most of these addicts will end up dead if they don't stop doing drugs. Yes I get it the liberal thing is to talk about individual choice and personal liberty, but are you really free if you are an addict? DARE didn't work but there are other programs that do. Why is there no push to implement these programs in schools? Why is it all about Narcan? Narcan saves lives of course but its not the solution. What a depressing state of affairs.

Marijuana is no joke either. It has become more addictive because of the astronomical THC levels and kids are getting addicted. This NYT article covers this pretty well https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/well/mind/teens-thc-cannabis.html

But no one cares about our kids. It's weird how people are so gung ho about restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes because they are attractive to kids but don't give a sh*t about THC gummies. What a disgusting world we live in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of drugs have been legalized. I think the school board members would prefer saying yes to drugs.

The result is an inhumane society where people, including kids are addicts and can't get out of the addiction cycle.

I assumed the result of legalization would be for lawyers to sue Big Drugs the way they sued Big Tobacco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of drugs have been legalized. I think the school board members would prefer saying yes to drugs.

It's depressing how people are mocking this (not referring to you PP but for people who think that teaching kids to say no to drugs is a joke). DH just got back from trip in Washington where he met with schools, substance abuse counselors/clinics and law enforcement. So many kids are hooked on hard drugs and many of them are in elementary school. Washington, like many states on the west coast legalized hard drugs and the result has been an astronomical increase in kids hooked on drugs. Progressives (and I am a progressive just not when it comes to legalization) keep mentioning Portugal as a model. But Portugal never legalized drugs, it decriminalized them. It also mandates treatment. Drug legalization advocates in the United States don't believe in mandated treatment at all. The result is an inhumane society where people, including kids are addicts and can't get out of the addiction cycle. People can administer Narcan all they want (and don't get me wrong, Narcan saves lives) but eventually most of these addicts will end up dead if they don't stop doing drugs. Yes I get it the liberal thing is to talk about individual choice and personal liberty, but are you really free if you are an addict? DARE didn't work but there are other programs that do. Why is there no push to implement these programs in schools? Why is it all about Narcan? Narcan saves lives of course but its not the solution. What a depressing state of affairs.

Marijuana is no joke either. It has become more addictive because of the astronomical THC levels and kids are getting addicted. This NYT article covers this pretty well https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/well/mind/teens-thc-cannabis.html

But no one cares about our kids. It's weird how people are so gung ho about restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes because they are attractive to kids but don't give a sh*t about THC gummies. What a disgusting world we live in.

People aren’t mocking efforts to reduce drug use among young people, they are mocking the specific DARE program, because it doesn’t work, as the research shows. I’m a teacher who has had to sit through these lessons and there is a lot of inadvertent glamorization of drugs and alcohol in it (“Let’s list all the kinds of alcohol you know!”—and the kids who know the most come off as “cooler” to the other kids.) and much of the student participation is very unengaged.

You want to know what would be effective? More social workers in schools to provide needed support to the families of kids whose lives are so rough they are turning to drugs at 10, 12, 14 years. We added a full-time SW this year and it’s been amazing but we can see how much more need there is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of drugs have been legalized. I think the school board members would prefer saying yes to drugs.

It's depressing how people are mocking this (not referring to you PP but for people who think that teaching kids to say no to drugs is a joke). DH just got back from trip in Washington where he met with schools, substance abuse counselors/clinics and law enforcement. So many kids are hooked on hard drugs and many of them are in elementary school. Washington, like many states on the west coast legalized hard drugs and the result has been an astronomical increase in kids hooked on drugs. Progressives (and I am a progressive just not when it comes to legalization) keep mentioning Portugal as a model. But Portugal never legalized drugs, it decriminalized them. It also mandates treatment. Drug legalization advocates in the United States don't believe in mandated treatment at all. The result is an inhumane society where people, including kids are addicts and can't get out of the addiction cycle. People can administer Narcan all they want (and don't get me wrong, Narcan saves lives) but eventually most of these addicts will end up dead if they don't stop doing drugs. Yes I get it the liberal thing is to talk about individual choice and personal liberty, but are you really free if you are an addict? DARE didn't work but there are other programs that do. Why is there no push to implement these programs in schools? Why is it all about Narcan? Narcan saves lives of course but its not the solution. What a depressing state of affairs.

Marijuana is no joke either. It has become more addictive because of the astronomical THC levels and kids are getting addicted. This NYT article covers this pretty well https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/well/mind/teens-thc-cannabis.html

But no one cares about our kids. It's weird how people are so gung ho about restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes because they are attractive to kids but don't give a sh*t about THC gummies. What a disgusting world we live in.

People aren’t mocking efforts to reduce drug use among young people, they are mocking the specific DARE program, because it doesn’t work, as the research shows. I’m a teacher who has had to sit through these lessons and there is a lot of inadvertent glamorization of drugs and alcohol in it (“Let’s list all the kinds of alcohol you know!”—and the kids who know the most come off as “cooler” to the other kids.) and much of the student participation is very unengaged.

You want to know what would be effective? More social workers in schools to provide needed support to the families of kids whose lives are so rough they are turning to drugs at 10, 12, 14 years. We added a full-time SW this year and it’s been amazing but we can see how much more need there is.

Yes of course we need more social workers. But we also need programs teaching kids how to say no to drugs implemented in schools. The old DARE program didn’t work but this one does: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-d-a-r-e-program-this-one-works/

[Anonymous]

All the kids in the DARE program at my HS were the ones who were either currently doing drugs or turned into total druggies in college.

[Anonymous]

I did DARE back in first and second grade in the late 80s, but don't remember doing it after we moved in third grade. My first grader just learned about drugs in her DCPS PE class. I don't think it was a ton of detail, and possibly prompted by some specific conversation that the teacher became aware of, but she came home knowing a drug is something you put in your body to make you feel differently or make your body work differently, and medicine drugs are helpful, but other drugs can hurt you. That prompted an at-home conversation about how drugs can sometimes be put in things like gummies that you look normal, so don't share candy (especially gummies) at school unless you see it come out of a package like you'd see at the store.

I think with the legalization of marijuana and mushrooms, and the proliferation of edibles and vaping, a better approach to drug education would be to incorporate it into a broader harm reduction curriculum including drugs, nicotine (vaping), sex and consent, and social media. The world is a more complicated place for teens now and they WILL be exposed, so they should learn how to make responsible choices, not just to "just say no."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did DARE back in first and second grade in the late 80s, but don't remember doing it after we moved in third grade. My first grader just learned about drugs in her DCPS PE class. I don't think it was a ton of detail, and possibly prompted by some specific conversation that the teacher became aware of, but she came home knowing a drug is something you put in your body to make you feel differently or make your body work differently, and medicine drugs are helpful, but other drugs can hurt you. That prompted an at-home conversation about how drugs can sometimes be put in things like gummies that you look normal, so don't share candy (especially gummies) at school unless you see it come out of a package like you'd see at the store.

I think with the legalization of marijuana and mushrooms, and the proliferation of edibles and vaping, a better approach to drug education would be to incorporate it into a broader harm reduction curriculum including drugs, nicotine (vaping), sex and consent, and social media. The world is a more complicated place for teens now and they WILL be exposed, so they should learn how to make responsible choices, not just to "just say no."

That’s why we need evidence based programs such as this one https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-d-a-r-e-program-this-one-works/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did DARE back in first and second grade in the late 80s, but don't remember doing it after we moved in third grade. My first grader just learned about drugs in her DCPS PE class. I don't think it was a ton of detail, and possibly prompted by some specific conversation that the teacher became aware of, but she came home knowing a drug is something you put in your body to make you feel differently or make your body work differently, and medicine drugs are helpful, but other drugs can hurt you. That prompted an at-home conversation about how drugs can sometimes be put in things like gummies that you look normal, so don't share candy (especially gummies) at school unless you see it come out of a package like you'd see at the store.

I think with the legalization of marijuana and mushrooms, and the proliferation of edibles and vaping, a better approach to drug education would be to incorporate it into a broader harm reduction curriculum including drugs, nicotine (vaping), sex and consent, and social media. The world is a more complicated place for teens now and they WILL be exposed, so they should learn how to make responsible choices, not just to "just say no."

I still think “just say no” is the way to go. Harm reduction does not work. It’s not like safe sex. There’s not a safe way to use hard drugs, and it’s very likely you will end up dead if you continue.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/05/jesse-harvey-opioids-addiction-maine/


Also, about the candy, some of the THC laced candy packages look very similar to standard candy packages, so it’s good to make kids aware of that.

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2023/02/fairfax-co-police-say-thc-infused-sports-drinks-being-marketed-to-kids/

[Anonymous]

Solving the drug crisis takes interventions in a lot of ways. As many PP have said, DARE itself was not shown to be effective. Other programs could work. But mainly, kids need support, to have basic needs met, and at least one adult in their life who knows them and cares about them. We need a whole society solution. Honestly, it bothers me that our crappy culture isn't even on board with food security programs. Until we are committed as a (rich) society to making sure no one is hungry, it's hard to believe we can make progress with much else. I find it frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Loudoun still has DARE in elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m also curious about this. While the old DARE was found to be ineffective, the new DARE is evidence based and is very effective. Does anyone know what APS uses? My kids are so young but I’ve been alarmed about the increase in drug use in the county. Here is more about the new DARE:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-d-a-r-e-program-this-one-works/

PP here. I had the same thought but if you read the article you will see that the name is different.

If they've found something that works, it's a huge mistake to name it after the thing that doesn't.

It isn’t. If you read the article you will see that it’s called Keeping It Real. It’s interactive and involves a lot of role playing. The instructor speaks for 8 mins maximum and the rest of the time, the students role play being in a tough situation and having to make a tough decision. It isn’t focused on drugs but on how to make the best decision when you are in a dangerous situation. It is very practical and skill focused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Solving the drug crisis takes interventions in a lot of ways. As many PP have said, DARE itself was not shown to be effective. Other programs could work. But mainly, kids need support, to have basic needs met, and at least one adult in their life who knows them and cares about them. We need a whole society solution. Honestly, it bothers me that our crappy culture isn't even on board with food security programs. Until we are committed as a (rich) society to making sure no one is hungry, it's hard to believe we can make progress with much else. I find it frustrating.

.

A whole society solution is necessary. But there is a lot we can do in the meantime. Kids in the developing world have worse living conditions and aren’t hooked on drugs.