From: [w--li--h] at [ix.netcom.com](William House)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,uk.legal,uk.politics
Subject: DARE: Delivering Acronyms rather than Education. (Was: Drug Education Does Not Prevent Use)
Date: 6 Apr 1996 12:34:26 GMT
Deliver Acronyms rather than Education
http://www.hyperreal.com/drugs/politics/dare/deliver.acronyms
From: [l--mo--t] at [hyperreal.com] (Lamont Granquist)
Newsgroups: soc.libraries.talk,alt.drugs
Subject: More on DARE
Date: 13 Nov 1994 09:17:37 GMT
Message-ID: <3a4ljh$[8 eg] at [nntp1.u.washington.edu]>
Here's some other things i've been thinking about with respects to
the DARE program, anti-drug programs, and propaganda in america.
------------------------------------------------------------------
DARE: Deliver Acronyms Rather than Education
As far as i'm concerned this about sums it up. The DARE program
simply is not *about* education, i doubt that anyone could seriously
defend the content of the DARE program in a scientific fashion and i
don't feel it serves any other purpose other than simple
indoctrination. The DARE program presents a grossly over simplified
and pretty much inaccurate picture of the causes and cures of drug
abuse. It furthermore is aimed more at being a "feel good" program
for those who are already "straight" while those who are currently
drug users get a substantially different message, and one that is
manifestly counter productive to the stated goals of the program. It
comes as no surprise that a recent study in the American Journal of
Public Health found that DARE does not reduce drug abuse, and in fact
my increase the use of marijuana by those who participate in it.
These seemingly "paradoxical" results have some very simple
explanations.
The Structure of Anti-Drug Propaganda.
The program used by DARE and other "drug prevention" programs does
not address the real causes of drug abuse. The picture that is most
often presented in these programs is one where an individual confronts
a situation where drugs are offered to them, and the program attempts
to give that person the ability to "Just Say No." This kind of program
ignores the substantial pre-existing psychology of the person who is
being offered the drugs and tends to take a very "individualistic"
approach to the problem of drug abuse. If the person takes drugs then
they are judged to be_as an individual_ to have made a b ad choice and
to be morally inferior. On the other hand "good" students who do not
make the bad choice are judged to be morally superior. This fits in
quite nicely with an individualistic philosophy and rationalizes the
continued incarceration and dehumanization of drug users as being
some who morally inferior. I will come to how this picture is simply
wrong in a bit, but for now lets consider the effect that this has on
students in the DARE program. In light of current views on psychology
the DARE program should have very, very different messages to those
individuals with low or with high self-esteem.
Low Self Esteem vs. High Self Esteem
Current perspectives in psychology have determined two salient facts
about people with low vs. high self esteem. The first is that
individuals assess the causes of their fortunes very differently based
on self esteem. A high self esteem individual will typically regard a
positive experience as having been caused by themselves, and will take
credit for the action. They will not, however, take credit for
negative experiences. If they perform badly on a test, they will find
some way to blame the negative outcome on factors external to
themselves, or to focus on their successes and not their failures.
Low self-esteem individuals, however, do exactly the opposite. If they
are presented with a good outcome they will find some factor in
the environment to blame it on, while claiming that bad outcomes are
entirely their fault and that they bear the full responsibility of the
blame. The second fact is that low self esteem individuals tend to do
very poorly on a second task after initially failing a first one.
Much more so than high self esteem individuals. Failure tends to
beget more failure when one has low self esteem.
Self Esteem and DARE
The problem with DARE is largely with its effects on low self-esteem
children who arguably are at the most risk for drug abuse. Those high
in self-esteem will of course have their perceptions of themselves
reinforced. The y are, arguably, only ever going to wind up as casual
drug users, and these programs will probably prevent this from
happening. However, the message to the low self-esteem children
reinforces their beliefs that if they use drugs they are taking
actions entirely as an individual agent which are morally
reprehensible. This does *not* "scare them straight" as some
might believe, but instead has the effect of making them fail worse.
Thus explaining the increased rate of marijuana use among DARE
graduates . There should also be a predictable effect where DARE
graduates are more segregated into abstainers or heavy users rather
than casual users. There is nothing in the DARE program which might
address the actual causes of drug abuse, and which might be useful for
someone who actually is at risk for drug abuse. The DARE program
simply _is_not_about_prevention_.
Other Effects
The DARE program presents the users of drugs with a problem of having
to deal with a substantial amount of social alienation and negative
labelling. There are three ways that they can deal with this:
1. They could abstain. This would, however, arguably have some
negative effects on independence and on individual creativity.
Summed up over all the other similar social messages which are
presented in our society ("just say no to homosexuality", "just
say no to sex", etc) this could wind up being cumulatively quite
substantial.
2. They could continue using, while accepting the negative labelling.
This will likely be the route taken by those with low self-esteem
and will externally appear to be a pattern of self-destructive
behavior. However, given no useful psychological counselling it
is unlikely that they will have a substantial choice in the
matter.
3. They could continue using, while denying the negative label. This
will, however, lead to lower respect for authority figures, and
still will tend to alienate these people from those who abstain
and thereby lead to fractures in the social fabric.
Realistic Programs
Many of these predictions have been confirmed by Block and Shelder
(American Psychologist 45(5):612-30, 1990) who also concluded
that:
"...current efforts at drug prevention are misguided to the extent
that they focus on symptoms, rather than on the psychological syndrome
underlying drug abuse."
They found links to drug use which would essentially confirm that it
is correlated with the pre-existing psychology of the adolescent
long before they are ever presented with the opportunity to use drugs.
This is not a surprise to psychologists. There has also been growing
support for the theories that drug abuse can be linked to genetic
factors and to neuropsychiatric or *biological* factors in the brain.
It is, essentially beginning to be viewed more as a medical problem
similar to diabetes.
A program which actually addressed the causes of drug abuse would
have many advantages over DARE and similar programs. It would be
effective where DARE is simply not effective or counter productive,
and it would not have the same effects at eroding the credibility of
authority figures. The one feature it would not have, however, is it
would not create a core group of adolescents who were as closed to
alternative viewpoints and open to moralistic propaganda.
The fact that the DARE program is so pervasive in our society, while
the actually effects of DARE go so unquestioned is a sad commentary.
You simply will not find DARE called "propaganda" anywhere in the mass
media, although it quite clearly serves simply no other purpose.
--Lamont Granquist ([l--mo--t] at [hyperreal.com])
Q: How many economists does it take to change a light bulb?
N: None! If it needed fixing, the market would take care of it!
Deliver Acronyms rather than Education
http://www.hyperreal.com/drugs/politics/dare/deliver.acronyms