The DARE program also emphasized punishments and zero-tolerance, in keeping with the war theme.

Instead, having specialists in the prevention of substance abuse provide guidance for student bodies, parents, school administrators, and faculties may have been more effective in connecting with children. It has been suggested that the program may have seemed less adversarial and been better served in its educational goals by not presenting police officers as the face of the program. Personifying the war approach to the anti-drug-abuse initiative were law enforcement officers introducing DARE at schools. Those were the days of вЂњJust Say NoвЂќ and mass incarceration for drug convictions. During the вЂ™80s, there was a widespread heightened fear response to drug abuse perpetuated by media coverage.

One contributor to the failure of DARE appears to have been the charged social energy of the times. This failure of the DARE program has ultimately been attributed to these several essential insufficiencies: Deficient Approach to Influencing Children All concluded that there was no measurable effect of the program on participants in terms of drug abuse or on their related attitudes and behaviors. Universities conducted multiple large research studies of DARE, and two major studies of the program were ordered by the Department of Justice (DOJ) from top research institutes.

Dare program