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• Study: D.A.R.E. Plus, parents make difference - Feb. 11, 2003 

The most widely used anti-drug education program in U.S. schools shows little success but an enhancement involving teachers and students appears to be effective at least with boys, according to a recent study.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota said they reached the conclusion after looking at the police-taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., program and comparing it to "D.A.R.E. Plus" programs, among seventh graders in 24 schools in 1999 and 2000. . .

In the study published Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the researchers said they found no significant differences between D.A.R.E. only students and those who had no program at all in terms of tobacco, alcohol or marijuana use or violence for both boys and girls later on. . .

"In summary, the D.A.R.E. Plus Project demonstrated that a multicomponent intervention significantly improved the D.A.R.E. middle and junior high school D.A.R.E. curriculum and became an effective intervention for reducing increases in alcohol, tobacco, and multigrid use and victimization among adolescent boys," the study said.

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