This is your brain on D.A.R.E.
How America's experiment in a drug education program affected the minds of millions.
This is part of an ongoing series looking into where our ideas on drugs and disorders came from—and where they might lead us. (Topics I’m exploring in my book). What began with wondering has become a labyrinthian rabbit hole into America’s War on Drugs. Let’s see if anyone wins…
“Hey kids, what do you say when someone asks you to do drugs?”
So asks the D.A.R.E. officer visiting our elementary school. He’s standing there in the front of our make-shift stage in the cafeteria (which smells like feet and yeast), having instructed us several times to parrot back the following answer:
“No, because I’m special!”
And we oblige: A choir of sixth graders, obediently reciting the Correct Reply to the man in the police uniform.
The question is repeated. Our answer is regurgitated. An applause is had, a box is likely checked, and we are released back to our Regularly Scheduled Programming.
Image from the D.A.R.E. Honolulu Police Department
Immediately after this “special assembly” presented by the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (D.A.R.E), a government-funded operation that aimed to get kids believing illegal drugs are Bad, my best friend Nova and I recreate a mini mockumentary to express how stupid we thought this all was—things we’d never say out loud in front of the Teacherly or Otherly Authorities. (Never talk back if you want to pass the class.)
And forevermore, saying “No, because I’m special!” became our running joke for how to get yourself bullied at school for sounding like a fool or grounded at home for disobeying a parental request:
—“YOU TRYNA FIGHT?”
—“No! Because I’m special!”
—“Please clean up your room”
—“No! Because I’m special!”
“No because I’m special,” and pretty much everything associated with what we learned about drugs in school, became synonymous with out-of-touch advice that leads to ridicule and failure.
The D.A.R.E. program itself cites, on its website1
If you were one of millions of children who completed the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, or D.A.R.E., between 1983 and 2009, you may be surprised to learn that scientists have repeatedly shown that the program did not work. Despite being the nation’s most popular substance-abuse prevention program, D.A.R.E. did not make you less likely to become a drug addict or even to refuse that first beer from your friends.”
HOWEVER, get this: The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs claimed that, per a 1993 Gallup poll survey taken by 2,000 D.A.R.E. graduates, “over 90 percent of the program's graduates reported that it assisted them in avoiding drugs and alcohol.”
A year after that, the same US Department of Justice revealed results of the first national study of the D.A.R.E. program, which showed only short-term reductions in participants’ usage of tobacco, with no impact on alcohol or marijuana use.
D.A.R.E. reportedly spent $41,000 on trying to squash the evidence from being distributed, and even threatened legal action to prevent its release.
(D.A.R.E. : Stop the presses!
US Dept of Justice: No, because I’m special!)
FIFTEEN YEARS after that, the US Department of Justice was like oh okay, here are 30 additional evaluations that indicate there’s no substantial long-term improvement on “teen substance abuse.” In some cases, D.A.R.E. was shown to have the opposite of its intended effects.2
Note here that the language around “substance abuse” refers to any usage of drugs on the Naughty List, Including those that are either illegal until you’re older, like alcohol and tobacco, or drugs the federal government deems illegal forever, like marijuana, cocaine, heroine, MDMA, et cetera. (Oh and also, per D.A.R.E., tattoos and graffiti are capital-B Bad too.) Taking prescribed amphetamines for being too wiggly in class,3 ingesting opioids your doctor gives you for pain, and eating whatever substance it is that Taco Bell called “meat” does not apply.
So what do we make of the discrepancy in these results?
If over 9 in 10 D.A.R.E. participants told Gallup in 1993 that “yes D.A.R.E. worked for me” but dozens of subsequent studies say, “Nope: D.A.R.E. no workee”? Either the Gallup takers are liars, the decades of research is a lie, or the survey participants self-selected into what were essentially skewed results.
(Survey says! People who liked the program, liked the program!)
Remarkable, too, is the sheer number of years the D.A.R.E. program embedded itself into the brains of American kids before its validity was seriously questioned.
Because let’s recap the math, and the impact.
The original D.A.R.E. program was created in 1983 by police officers and teachers in Los Angeles and “quickly spread to 75 percent of US schools.” (One of its creators, then LAPD chief Darryl Gates, was quoted by the LA Times saying that casual drug users should be “taken out and shot.”)
Image of a poster created by street artist Robbie Conal in response to the Rodney King beating
The program gained government funding in 1986, thanks to the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act (embedded within the Anti-Drug Abuse Act4) signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
President Ronald Reagan, seen here observing his bank account
This law allocated $1.7B to the War on Drugs and established “harsh mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenders.” It was later amended to increase penalties, making crack-cocaine the only drug with a mandatory minimum penalty for a first offense of possession,56 and required schools receiving federal funding to certify their compliance in preventing the unlawful possession and use of illicit drugs. D.A.R.E. aligned nicely with these punitive pursuits.
“We must be intolerant of drug users,” Reagan said when signing the Act, “not because we want to punish them but because we want to help them.” The message: Ya gotta be cruel to be kind.
Reagan’s focus on intolerance over treatment—coupled with hefty reductions in funding for health and social welfare programs—“led to a massive increase in incarcerations for nonviolent drug offenses” (from 50,000 in 1980 to 400,000 in 1997). Um, is this what winning looks like?
It would take an additional eight years of receiving funding before the government would release its first D.A.R.E. assessment showing those dismal results. You know, the ones that were like hey when it comes to providing actual evidence, this program is a whole lotta “just say no.”
Then followed the Surgeon General placing D.A.R.E. on the list of Ineffective Primary Prevention Programs in 2001.
That same year—2001–D.A.R.E got new lipstick in its “Take Charge of Your Life” curriculum. Per D.A.R.E., Take Charge “was not found to have lasting behavioral outcomes.” And a subsequent spin-off pilot “did not show positive results.”
Sounds like euphemisms for the facts: More teenagers drank and smoked after this iteration.
It wasn’t until 2008, TWENTY FIVE YEARS after inception—with a veritable mountain of studies showing D.A.R.E. 's didactic approach didn’t work—that the curriculum was significantly overhauled. Or at least, got itself a new shade.
You know what came to replace the OG D.A.R.E.? It’s called—hold the eye-roll while in class, kids—keepin’ it REAL. Which stands for four ways to get yourself out of drug-related situations: Refuse, Explain, Avoid, Leave. (Feels suspiciously akin to “No, because I’m special.”)
Proponents say this program works this time. In part because of its design: Instead of 45-minute lectures about “Drugs, Bad; No Drugs, Good,” students get bite-sized stories and engage in role-play scenarios where they can demonstrate their REAL skills.
“When [students] learn the ways to say no to friends, they absolutely love getting up in front of the class and acting those out,” Sgt Christine Rapp told Scientific American in a 2014 article about keepin’ it REAL. (Rapp served as a full-time D.A.R.E. officer for at least 16 years.)
Uh-huh. As everyone knows, every kid absolutely loves SAYING SPECIAL THINGS IN FRONT OF THE CLASS. Yes officer. Thank you officer. You’re right officer.7
To be clear: D.A.R.E. and keepin’ it REAL star police officers telling kids to steer away from drugs. (Or else.)
When the program launched in the early 80s, the health educator involved believed that cops were more credible than teachers when it came to drugs. Police became central figureheads of this abstinence-only education, where they remain to this day.8
Cops were often accompanied by this totally non-creepy mascot, Daren the Lion. Who looks like he could use some cannabis to relax, before scooping up some frosted flakes with pal Tony the Tiger. Image credit: Kissyface.
Soooo D.A.R.E. evolved from cops telling kids “just say no” to drugs lest you become a CRIMINAL, to cops telling kids, “here are scenarios for you to practice saying no” SO YOU WON’T BECOME A CRIMINAL.
Instead of educating kids on, say, the actual effects of drugs, the focus remained glaringly myopic: illegal drugs = criminal = bad. The Authorities Have Spoken (so shut up).9
On the bright side, the new program is actively looking into the effects over time rather than waiting several years to bat an eye. Students surveyed so far have indicated that keepin’ it REAL might be keepin’ them away from dem drugs.
And according to D.A.R.E., D.A.R.E. is working!
Click the convincingly-titled “Proven effective and evidence-based through multiple studies” link on dare.org and you’ll find a research article published in 2023, with data that—wait for it—relies on student surveys.
Image from dare.org
“Outcomes suggest that the delivery of elementary school keepin’ it REAL by D.A.R.E. officers is having a positive effect in terms of deterring the onset of alcohol use and vaping,” the study says.
Juuuuust a couple little issues. For one, the study had to exclude students who opted out, either on their own or because their parents didn’t consent.
And there was a massive attrition rate.
When the study began, 6,122 students took a pre-test survey. That whittled down to 2,049 at immediate post-test (meaning kids took the survey immediately after taking all 10 sessions of keepin’ it REAL). A year later, we’re down to 1,486 students for “usable follow-up surveys.”10
Oh, and this was the first prospective study to use a “virtual control group.”
A what now?
Yeah, so basically there weren’t actual human students used as the “control,” aka the kids who didn’t take the program (to compare results with those who did). Instead, the control is based on algorithmic projections.
Let’s also remember these are surveys taken by fifth graders. Average age 10.8 years old. Kids who fill out a survey that say maybe this 10-session-deal led by police made them think twice about taking drugs by the time they were average-age 11.8 years old. (Not counting the kids who quit while they were ahead.)
We’ve seen the danger of surveys before haven’t we.
And there are also these looming statistics: Drug use among 8th graders increased 61% between 2016 and 2020. Opioid overdose deaths among 15- to 24-year-olds have increased 500% since 1999. High school students who were prescribed opioids are 33% more likely to misuse them later in life.
It goes on.
America hit a record number of opioid deaths in 2022. Deaths related to alcohol increased 25% from 2019 to 2020. Cocaine overdose deaths increased 11% in 2021 over the previous year.
More Americans die from prescription drugs, including painkillers and tranquilizers, than those who died from overdosing on illegal drugs combined.
Image from National Institute on Drug Abuse
It appears there are now proportionately far more people using and dying from drugs—particularly the ones that you get from your doctor—than before D.A.R.E. swept the nation.
How the hell did we get into this mess?
In part 2, we dig into “the most dangerous drug in America,” (hint: not a fried egg), honest politicians and other fake science. Yay! If you’ve found this valuable or enjoyed the GIF selection, consider buying me a brain to support AD-FREE deep dives into drugs.
This citation is from a 2014 Scientific American article, mentioned again later in this piece.
A 2002 review and 2009 study reported an increase in teens drinking and smoking after exposure to D.A.R.E programs.
See: Tutoring The Wiggly Boy. To come in a later edition of this series ;)
But it’s foR tHe cHilDreN mmK.
While “there is pharmacologically no difference in effects between” cocaine and crack-cocaine, offenders of the latter faced a 100:1 discrepancy in criminal charges. ie 1 gram of crack became equivalent to 100g of cocaine.
ALSO YES: There are race implications. We’ll get to that.
(Nevermind an estimated 77% of the population has anxiety around public speaking. And some students who share in that experience have taken to Twitter with pleas like “Stop forcing students to present in front of their class” These posts went so viral that teachers started taking note and making changes.)
The D.A.R.E. program also says it’s “enriching students across the US and 29+ countries around the world.” Yes, the program went international.
Look, I’m sure a lot of people involved believe they’re doing the right thing, helping kids yada yada, but how many of them have looked into—or care—what the actual effects are? Would the facts even matter?
To be fair, part of the latest research was conducted when the pandemmy hit. Which could explain some of the attrition. Well that, or more people turning to drugs could explain it.
That's a great breakdown. Trying to get into their heads for a minute, it seems like they saw adolescent drug use as a common enemy to rally voters around. So when you're beating that drum the loudest, you have to follow up by positioning yourself as the only hero who knows how to slay that particular dragon.
But man alive, what a failed campaign. In my neck of the woods, field trips to the paper mill were taken more seriously than yet another lecture from an officer in a lion suit.