TROUBLING TRENDS
The DARE program has been shown
to be effective in helping to keep children from using drugs. Yet statistics
show that more children today are experimenting with drugs than ever before.
Critics of the DARE program use this as one of the bases of attack on the
DARE program. Why this seeming contradiction?
Statistic show that:
-
33%of
high school seniors smoked marijuana in the last year
-
21% smoked
monthly
-
marijuana use by junior high aged black
males rose 195% (4.5%
to 13.3%) between 1991 and 1995
-
marijuana use by junior high aged black
females rose 253%
(1.9% to 6.7%) between 1991 and 1995
-
cocaine use by high school students
has risen 36% (3.3%
to 4.5%) since 1992.
-
hallucinogen use by high school students
has risen 75%
(4.4% to 7.7%) since 1989.
-
44% of
high school students smoked tobacco at least once in the past year
-
25.8% of
high school students use alcohol at least weekly.
-
(source: National Parents' Resource Institute for
Drug Education, 1995)
The Drug Abuse Resistance Education
program is based on a trilateral partnership of school, law enforcement,
and parents. Working together and jointly reinforcing the anti-drug message
to children, the program will be successful. Unfortunately, in many cases
children do not have the benefit of all three partners doing their job.
Statistics from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse show:
-
46% of
parents EXPECT their children to try drugs.
-
32% of
parents have friends who currently use marijuana.
-
49% of
parents used marijuana in their youth, 21%
regularly.
-
40% of
parents think they have little influence over a teen's decision to use
drugs.
-
only 58%
of parents who regularly used marijuana in their youth considered it a
crisis when their child 15 or under smokes marijuana.
-
65% of
parents who regularly used marijuana in their youth believe their children
will try drugs.
-
94% of
parents report they have talked with their children about drugs, 64%
of
teen agers say their parents have talked to them about drugs.
These statistics speak very loudly
that parents need to become parents again. In a 1996 survey, only 29.6%
of
students said that their parents talk to them often about illicit drug
use while 88.9%
said their teachers have taught them about drugs. Students' use of drugs
is mostly done at night and on weekends when parents should be looking
after them. Indeed, 8.2%
of the teenage marijuana users report that they smoke their marijuana in
their own homes. Children need and indeed want discipline at home, yet
50%
of students report they are not disciplined when they break rules at home.
33%
of the students
said that their parents do not even set clear rules.
It doesn't take a village to raise
a child, it takes parents who are dedicated to providing proper guidance
to their children. Parents who are willing to spend time with their children
and give them the love and discipline that all children need. Parents who
are willing to set good examples and become positive role models for their
children. Parents who expect appropriate and lawful behavior from their
children. The family is the foundation of a child's future. If that foundation
is not firm and strong, anything built on it is destined to crack and crumble,
regardless of how much reinforcement is applied.