Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar on the New D.A.R.E. Program

New Directions in Preventing Substance Abuse

By Ken Salazar

Substance abuse continues to be one of the most significant problems that our society faces today. This scourge impacts many different aspects of our lives: our families, our children, employment, and the criminal justice system. The impact of substance abuse is especially acute in the criminal justice area. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of the inmates in the Colorado Department of Corrections have a substance abuse problem. Most of these offenders started their alcohol and/or drug abuse as juveniles. The research shows that if you are successful keeping kids and young adults away from alcohol or drug abuse, the chances are significantly increased that as adults they will avoid a lifetime of alcohol or drug abuse. It is clear that we need to concentrate efforts on substance abuse education and prevention for our children.

It is important to note that substance abuse is not just a problem for kids in our cities or suburbs. Over the last three years, I have held forums in schools in each of our 63 counties. There were two problems common to schools across the state: substance abuse and bullying.

Over the last 20 years, the most popular substance abuse education and prevention program for our school kids has been D.A.R.E. This year alone, D.A.R.E. officers will reach out to 36 million school children in 52 different countries. Twenty-six million of these kids will be in the United States. D.A.R.E. officers are teaching in most of the school districts across our country.

With the traditional focus of D.A.R.E. being on fifth and sixth graders, D.A.R.E. has shown to be a positive connection between these kids and law enforcement. D.A.R.E. officers are constantly approached by teens and young adults who remember and respect the officers from the classes 5 or 10 years before. Over the last several years, the question researchers have asked concerns the long-term impact of drug prevention as these kids go into junior high and high school. This is the period that the kids face both exposure and pressure for alcohol and substance abuse. Commendably, the D.A.R.E. program has moved to respond to answer these questions. Over the last several years the national D.A.R.E. program has worked with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the University of Akron to develop a revised D.A.R.E. curriculum that focuses on the middle school and junior high students. This revised D.A.R.E. curriculum recognizes that as kids enter junior high and middle school, their decision making process significantly changes. They are much more subject to peer pressure during this time period. The revised D.A.R.E. program focuses on these years, and then reinforces it in following years, to develop resistance skills, normative beliefs and personal attitudes and values that teens can use as decision making skills to resist drug and alcohol use. The initial review by the research experts in these areas finds that D.A.R.E. is moving in a positive direction and using the appropriate means to have a greater impact on long-term drug and alcohol resistance.

Over the last several months, I have met with D.A.R.E. concerning their revised curriculum. I also believe D.A.R.E.’s focus on the middle schools will result in enhanced drug prevention. I commend and strongly support D.A.R.E. and its efforts to keep our kids away from drugs and alcohol. I will continue to meet and assist D.A.R.E. in any way I can to ensure that our kids will have the opportunity to reach the potential that is in each of them.