Dare Propaganda and School Drug Education

This was written in response to an article in the St. Ignance News.

Dr. Bob Townsend Discusses Drug Education in Schools

The article on drug education promotes what amounts to little more than anti-drug propaganda being taught in our schools. I actually have a daughter that, laughing her 14 year old head off, brought home an ‘educational quiz’ she received in class. I reviewed it and the ‘if you use marijuana your head will explode’ nonsense brought a sad smile to my face as well.

Your article correctly points out the DARE program, a blatant piece of propaganda from the ‘Just Say NO’ era and created by the same Los Angeles police chief that brought us Rodney King is no longer used. But then you go on to promote a local version called TEAM from the state police. I have experience with this program. I got a call from a patient in Gaylord once, a father dying of pancreatic cancer. His 11 year old came home from school after such a Trooper lead class, and announced she could no longer live with him because he was a ‘drug addict’ for legally using medical marijuana.

You missed the major point of the story. Ask the students. You are correct, they are exposed to medical marijuana in the home (and nice job demonizing your band director by the way). They view the programs with ridicule, because they have first hand experience that marijuana is not the civilization ending ‘Assassin of Youth’ these programs portray.

Drug Warrior Propaganda Leads to Lack of Respect for Authority

The real problem is one of the lack of respect for the police and teachers these programs generate. To have a state trooper- a servant of the people we are all raised to respect, come in and spew drug warrior propaganda leads to a lack of respect for the institution of law enforcement. Teenagers are not stupid. They can use the internet, and they can read. They know better, and to have a teacher or a police officer come in and outright lie to them not only lowers their respect for those that are responsible for molding their educations, but leads them to question not only the other ‘truths’ they are presented in school, but it erodes their respect for these hard working mentors.

If my 14 year old daughter is any example, the reason DARE failed is the message is viewed with ridicule and amusement by the students. Is that really the message we want to send our children? We want them to respect their bodies. We want them to avoid dangerous drugs like meth, cocaine and narcotics. We need to take a serious look at the message we are sending our children, like that 11 year old in Gaylord. Telling obvious lies about marijuana dilutes the serious warnings about crack cocaine.

Dr. Bob Townsend

Dare Propaganda and School Drug Education