continue to call it a quarterly, however, because, according to our executive di- rector, it sounds good and, after all, one

pose is to provide members and non- members with information about the Drug War in order to promote discus- sion of drug policy issues among its readers and their friends and col- leagues. It also serves to communicate to local political leaders that there is a growing, active, informed and deter- mined constituency that wants funda- mental changes in drug policies.

ber ship or ganizat ion t hat wor ks by consensus and t hrough t he volunt eer ef- for ts and contributions of its members. It is a New York State not-for-pro\ufb01t corporation, with its headquar ters in Syracuse. It is suppor ted by individual cont r ibut ions and gr ant s.

Its unifying belief that the War on Dr ugs has failed grounds its fundamental pur poses: to effect substantial change in United States dr ug policy; to pro- mote, suppor t, and engage in open discussion of alternatives to the War on Dr ugs; to for m numerous chapter s that challenge citizens and local political leaders to rethink drug policies; and to help enact pragmatic legislation that r educes har m and pr eser ves liber t ies.

When Drug Abuse Resistance Education
(D.A.R.E.) was first launched in 1983,
parents welcomed it, believing it would
help keep their children safe. But some
found thatD.A.R.E. wasn\u2019t working the
way they\u2019d hoped it would.

\u201cIn 1994, D.A.R.E. invaded the serenity of
our home,\u201d Steve Finichel, a doctor from
New Jersey, told us last fall. \u201cMy 10-year-
old son began to cry uncontrollably at
dinner, informing his mother and me
that the wine we were about to drink
takes 14 minutes from our lives. He also
informed us that we were alcoholics. To
make matters worse, he put a tip into the
classroomD.A.R.E. box and was fright-
ened that soon we would be taken off to
jail. . .\u201d

To make matters worse, studies found
that the program wasn\u2019t working. In
2001, the U.S. Surgeon General placed it
under the category of \u201cIneffective
Programs.\u201dD.A.R.E. America \ufb01rst
defended the program, then worked with
the Institute of Health and Social Policy,
at the University of Akron, to revise it,
using a grant from the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation.

About 37,000 7th-graders are now taking
part in the program, known as the
Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention
Study, which was launched in September
2001 in 87 school districts in six selected
cities \u2014 New Orleans, Houston, Los
Angeles, Newark, St. Louis, and Detroit.
All of the districts were randomly
assigned the new program, with half
getting the new program and half serving
as the control group and continuing
their old drug abuse prevention activi-
ties. To determine the program\u2019s success,
all 37,000 students will be surveyed from

September 2001 through June 2006. The
survey will include an assessment of how
well the program was implemented,
students\u2019 receptivity to the program,
interviews with dropouts, and analyses of
school and community data in order to
understand the contextual impact on the
program\u2019s delivery and outcome.

IsD.A.R.E. America to be applauded for
revising its program? Or should it be
condemned, as Salt Lake City Mayor
Rocky Anderson put it, for foisting this
fraud on the American public in the \ufb01rst
place, and trying to salvage its reputa-
tion by using our children as guinea
pigs? How did we end up in this situa-
tion? And where should we go from here?
Experts in the \ufb01eld helped us answer
these questions.

Social Capital Development Corporation,
served as an advisor to the developers of
the newD.A.R.E. curriculum. He takes us
fromD.A.R.E.\u2019s beginnings up to the
present, and shares his concerns about
the new program.

professor and chair of the LeMoyne
College Department of Economics,
undertook a ground breaking study to
\ufb01nd out how muchD.A.R.E. has cost us.
In the process, he discovered thatD.A.R.E.
costs more than we knew.

of the UCLA Graduate School of Educa-
tion and Information Studies, draws on
his talks with teens to tell us what
educational approaches might be best to
follow.

California, tells us how he helps his
sociology students decode drug educa-
tion messages \u2014 and what it takes to
gain students\u2019 trust.

Lake City, talks about how citizens of
Salt Lake City reacted when he stopped
fundingD.A.R.E. \u2014 and offers advice to
other mayors.

sociologist and the director of the
Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Founda-
tion, tells how she came to write her
ground breaking booklet,Safet y Fir st.

Australia, shares her story of how she
has coped with drug abuse in her own
family \u2014 and is helping others to do the
same.

Shifting our focus from drug education
to the broader issue of drug policy, we
invited Kevin Zeese, president of Com-
mon Sense for Drug Policy, to review

This special issue of theQu ar t er ly is far
from the \ufb01nal word on drug education.
But if it motivates teachers, parents and
community leaders to rethink our
approach to \ufb01nd new and productive
ways to cut drug use and the harms it
in\ufb02icts, then we\u2019ve achieved our goal.
Only by examining this issue openly can
we uncover better ways to talk to kids
about drugs.