Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) is the most widely taught drug education program in the United States. For seventeen weeks each academic year, specially trained uniformed police officers give children in the fifth and sixth grades lessons in drug education. They reinforce the curriculum with their professional knowledge of the harms of drug abuse. At a cost of $220 million a year, 75 percent of the nation's school districts use DARE to teach children how to deal with the pressures to use illegal drugs they may experience during adolescence.

Numerous critics claim that the DARE program is ineffective. For example, some studies have indicated that although DARE may have an immediate effect on children, it has not proven to influence their likeliness to use drugs when they grow older. Others contend that DARE may have unintended effects on children's attitudes towards drugs...