Paul Armentano

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program fails to prevent students from using illegal drugs, argues Paul Armentano in the following viewpoint. According to Armentano, studies have found that students who have participated in the program show no significant difference in their attitudes toward illegal drugs compared to children who have not participated in DARE. Despite its failure to keep students off drugs, however, DARE remains a popular program in schools. Armentano believes that intensive lobbying by DARE officials fills the program’s coffers with millions of dollars each year. Armentano is a senior policy analyst for the NORML Foundation in Washington, D.C., a non-profit lobbying organization working to legalize marijuana.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. When was the DARE program established, and by whom, according...