Drug Abuse Resistance Education...Effective?

Upon scanning the plethera of articles that the Purdue Library has to offer, I came across a paper labeled 'Project D.A.R.E. Outcome Effectiveness Revisted'. It discussed the D.A.R.E. program we all endured in our early years of education. More specifically, it stated that D.A.R.E. is an ineffective program, and has little to no influence on whether or not individuals will experiment with drugs. Judgeing from their studies, it is obvious that an alternate approach is vital to get through to our youth about drug use. Considering the immense drug use that floods our society, it is obvious that those who participated in the program recieved little to no benefit from it.

Additionally, since the program has been deemed ineffective, the immense budget spent on D.A.R.E. is going to waste. Although spending the budget stimulates the economy, the money could be used on a program that actually makes an effect. I suggest that project D.A.R.E. be given to students at a later age than the typical fifth grade, considering students at such a young age are typically not exposed to drugs and are not truely aware of what they are. Also, I believe that the program should scratch the 'Just Say No' philosophy, because it is clear that it is not in any way beneficial to teach students the idea of just saying no. Students should be taught about drugs in a way that doesn't merely attempt to scare them. They should be given facts rather than frightening stories of individuals who smoked weed once and eventually turned into crack cocaine addicts. Also, focus should be put more on drugs that have a higher addiction/dependence rate and that have a worse physical effect than drugs which are nearly harmless and have barely a slight physical dependence rate. An example of which is the intense focus on marijuana that D.A.R.E. entails. Although marijuana is placed in schedule one of the criminal drug act spectrum (classifed as one of the most dangerous drugs, along side heroin) it is the least harmful drug on the Lancet drug classification. However, D.A.R.E. takes most of it's time teaching about the dangers of marijuana, rather than focus on drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine, drugs of a much more harmful substance. It is flaws in the D.A.R.E. system like this that deem it ineffective and thus having no impact on the probability of an individual to experiment with drugs. Therefore, project D.A.R.E. is ineffective in it's pursuit to end drug use.