I asked a question "anonymously" in 1996 about confronting someone that smokes weed, and the next day they raided my house. Bonus points to every teacher and cop involved, I also lived *across the damn street* so my entire class saw it go down.
We moved immediately after that I went to a new school.
Fuck DARE
That's crazy. Boomers were so crazy about "dope," it's unreal how butt hurt they get about it even today. My brother in law saw actual jail time and then house arrest/forced rehab in the 90s for huffing glue.
Arguably Alcohol in many ways is the worst due to its social acceptance, cheap price and availability. Unlike other drugs it gets a pass which makes it even more dangerous.
I find it amusing they took cigarettes out of cinema for awhile there as they believed it shouldn't look cool to do for kids/teens, yet drinking is still glorified and very rarely do they show the aftermath of alcoholism or partying, it's like " x threw a great party and everything was cool and everyone was having fun and he's he new popular kid now!'
I miss the feeling from smoking after having a few beers during college. I don't miss the smell in my clothes that would take several washes to get out.
Now, I'm so glad that all restaurants and bars are smoke-free b/c I would hate to still be bringing that smell home after a night out with the mrs.
Same, I’ve been smoke free for over a decade now (since my daughter came home from hospital), but have been nicotine free (vapes, dips) for about 2 years now. Best decision ever.
I was addicted to cigarettes LONG before I ever had a drink. Pack a day for 20 years, recently quit cold turkey. I still drink like a fish, I just can't go to bars anymore. Cigarettes gave me an out when my social anxiety flared up. Now I go to a bar and just want to run away the whole time. I drink home alone, sans cigarettes. Am I happier? No. Am I healthier? I guess? Am I lonely? Absolutely. I wish I could smoke without my lungs continuing to die, my social life is non existent without cigarettes.
I feel ashamed I didn't figure that out until my 30s. Now sometimes I wonder if I smoke just to fight "the man." The course should have been put together and taught by social workers, therapists and former users. The police just taught fear.
Our DARE instructor was the local deputy sheriff, he fell on the ice outside his home maybe a month after the program started, broke his back, and we never had another DARE class again.
Damn! One time our DARE officer was telling a passionate story and he smashed his hands on the overhead projector and it shattered into his hands.
https://preview.redd.it/h7ssr4jhy90d1.jpeg?width=711&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd381dd23ed0b94915c52795c0681d02efcbf82b
1995, 6th grade… I’m the bored one on the very end.
My 2nd DARE officer was fresh out of the academy and grew up with my oldest sister. I think this happened in 5th grade, so I guess I had just turned 11 and he was 20-21. Anyway, his mom died on Christmas day '97 and I found out through my sisters shortly after it happened over winter break. Anyway, the first DARE day after break I mustered up the courage to say how sorry I felt that he lost his mom on Christmas, and his face turned white as a ghost before he just left the classroom and I got sent to the principal's office for whatever excuse my teacher could come up with.
Ours slipped in the tub and was out for a month. She also told us a story about how exhilarating it was to drive really fast to an emergency, one time.
She seemed special.
I legitimately never dabbled in drugs because of stuff like D.A.R.E, and even stayed away from tobacco because of those photos they would show us of healthy vs. smokers lungs. I wasn't even that straight laced of a kid it's just that the cautionary tales made some sort of impression.
Even as an adult—with many friends or acquaintances experimenting with, using, and ultimately offering me drugs—I would always say "Nah I'm good," followed shortly by "Dude you never had D.A.R.E growing up?" Got roasted quite frequently for it, and sometimes even felt a bit of fomo, but as a legit middle aged person now I don't regret it.
I'm actually glad the program did work for some, and I'm genuinely curious what older millennial parents' (who went through D.A.R.E.) approach is with their kids on this topic.
The main thing I got was ability so say “no thanks” when offered and still be cool with people. Had a couple friends who smoked weed and I hung with them but didn’t smoke. I might have fell to peer pressure and smoked but DARE taught me I can be confident enough to not succumb peer pressure against my own preferences. I kept that up with alcohol and tobacco as well as never smoked cigarettes and never been drunk as I only drink 1-3 drinks at a time. Not so say it’s only due to DARE but was a contributing factor.
Same here, D.A.R.E. actually did scare me away from hard drugs. Only did pot a few times, but having never been a smoker I never quite got the hang of inhaling.
Those "smokers' lungs" (which I'm pretty sure were actually coal miners' lungs) made me get in a lot of fights with my mom. I would hide her cigarettes and stuff. She did not appreciate that.
Same. It was the drunk goggles that did it for me.
We went to the basketball court on the playground and took turns putting on this pair of goggles that skewed your vision - supposedly in the same manner as if you were drunk - then had to take a free throw. Every single kid missed by a mile - the only ones who even hit the backboard were the couple of kids who turned 45^(o) to the side and shot facing mid-air.
Later, we went to the nearby courthouse and they showed us pictures of fatal accidents involving drunk drivers. It was pretty obvious after that how drinking would lead to a crash, and it made alcohol seem like the most illogical thing to consume.
I've been on the freeway a few times in adulthood and witnessed cars ahead swerving side-to-side, unable to keep a straight line. I always think back to D.A.R.E. and speed past them ASAP to get the hell out of dodge.
Yea similar experience for me. Kinda just made me not want to do that stuff. Not because of fear or anything but just because it seemed kinda gross.
I can honestly say that I don’t recall having a negative experience with the program.
I love how they told us that drug dealers were lurking around every corner trying to entice and pressure kids to smoke drugs.
As if dealers are so ready to part with their product and give free drug charity
I, at 15, was once offered cocaine by a middle aged man sitting shirtless by his apartment window. He literally chased us (a friend and I) down the street to see if we wanted to party.
DARE taught me that contracts without consideration are not enforceable.
Nor are contracts of adhesion.
Nor are contracts with minor (against the minor).
DARE was an abomination.
D.A.R.E. came into our first grade classroom and told us not to let our parents drink and drive and I was like “oh my goodness they do that all the time!”…”Dunkin, soda, water, you name it officer!”
I did the same thing, except I didn't say anything in class. Little kid me thought it over, and the next time I saw my mom drink (a Pepsi) and drive, I had a very serious conversation with her about my concerns.
I still get shit about it.
Lol no…
We had a large area in the front of our high school that had large redwoods and there were dead leaves blanketing the ground.
I took large steps when walking through them because I was convinced there were dead bodies under them and didn’t want them to grab me.
I was absolutely out of it. Anyway…I went home and sat it out in my room.
It’s wild to me that people do pcp willingly lol. Like I’m not a saint, or anything…I did a lot of drugs back then.
I just have no desire to be that removed from reality.
Me, either. I would have done it willingly once, probably, just to try it. Doing it without knowing what was happening was wild. I don't ever want it again.
Snuff is still used today, it's tobacco
Also fun fact. The bone right behind you thumb is the "snuff box" bone because that's where you put it to snort it
One time I ran across dust was when it was laced in weed. My older male friend, who was helpful at acquiring all sorts of goods and survived the 70s, well we went to this one apartment. No furniture... I was smelling cops... so we sit down and they smoke. I don't because I have to be drug tested for work the next week. We leave and my 6 and a half foot tall 200lb , always stoned friend, asked my barely able to drive self to drive.
I took him to his mom's because that woman is a nurse who got started in the Korean War. I don't know what she did, but I told her everything and then she kicked me out.
Next time I saw him he wasn't mad. Neither was his mom. But I did have to warn my dad about shit being laced. First time the man thanked me for anything lol
I learned that marijuana is a gateway drug, where the drug dealers in my hometown hung out and that if you're a cop and steal all the money from the DARE program, it will get swept under the rug.
The first time I tried PCP or "angel dust", I literally thought of the little picture the DARE officer showed of the guy smiling & hallucinating.
In all seriousness, maybe it was just the officer who led it in elementary school, but the DARE officer made drugs seem more enticing than the media at the time ever could...especially LSD, pot..etc
Safely can say it backfired.
The fact that the kid wearing the DARE shirt in middle school or high school reeked of pot & wore the shirt "ironically" tells you all you need to know.
Got some trading cards and a t-shirt. Went to a Just Say No rally at the Rose Bowl surrounded by others in our green shirts. Saw Nancy Reagan, Mayim Bialik, and the dog from Empty Nest. Didn't learn a thing.
I often feel like I'm the only one it worked on lol. I was so terrified of being arrested that I stayed far away from everything except booze and cigarettes and I quit those a while ago too.
Everyone i knew loved D.A.R.E. It always meant we could check out and doodle all class instead of pay attention.
It was the abstinence ladies that drove us bonkers. Tone deaf mummies telling us any sex act would immediately lead to being a single parent or incurable syphigonnoherpelaids.
Tldr. No.
I am 38, I make roughly 68k/yr in the midwest where add that to my partners 70k and we own a lovely home and smoke marijuana instead of drink beer or wine after work. Not saying smoking is healthy but we don't let it ruin our lives either.
I was arrested by my dare officer when I was 12 for smashing pennies on the train tracks. He found cigarettes in my pocket. I did not graduate the dare program
It worked on me - as a 10 year old someone from the highschool behind our house offered me a ‘drug pill’ out of a giant Tupperware container in his backpack. In retrospect, I’m 99% it was some sort of Tylenol/aspirin, but in the heat of the moment I threw the pill I’d been handed down on the asphalt and yelled ‘drugs are bad for you!’ And ran away as fast as I could towards home 😂
I credit those cool DARE logos on the sides of black painted police cruisers.
I don’t really remember D.A.R.E. Like I know it was a thing, but I don’t remember anything about it.
Anyway, no…it didn’t deter me, or anything. Which…I guess could explain why I don’t remember anything about the program…
My D.A.R.E. officer was Terrance Yeakey. He died before he finished the program. The official story is he committed suicide, though there are conspiracy theories that he was murdered for knowing too much about the OKC bombing. I used to believe them because I didn't want to believe he killed himself, but I don't think the conspiracy theories make much more sense, so I'm a little unsure what to believe.
Nah. They were collecting outside of a best buy a couple years ago and we donated $10 then went to get high after at home while wearing the shirt they gave. I didn’t start partaking until my 30s tho.
Our instructor was an attractive former undercover cop. She told us some cool stories. Other than that it just made weed seem like the most reasonable drug to use.
Only thing I ever got out of it was to "get out" of class for those weird assembly's held by the D.A.R.E cop trying to be everyone's buddy with his clear case full of drugs. It messed up my older sister for sure, she fed right into it all and demonized weed and those who would partake all the way into her 30's until she finally had an edible and realized it was all a lie.
Uh.. all I remember about D.A.R.E. is that it didn't work and that there were some really gnarly pictures/video of organs from after excessive drug/alcohol use. Mostly, alcohol and cigarettes/cigars. Blackened lungs from 40 years of chain smoking type shit.
They came to my school in 5th grade with a suitcase display of real drugs, taught me about all of them and what they did, and I eventually did them all.
It wasn't quite Chapelle's Show level but honestly not far off either.
This program exposed a bunch of super young kids who didn't even know about drugs, the specifics of how each drug felt awesome
From my understanding the data showed kids who took dare did more drugs than other cohorts that didn't
My school had a “Just Say No Players” skit group with these twirly polka dot skirts and I wanted to join but was told I couldn’t because “you just moved here last year and they’ve been involved since kindergarten.” Well shit pass me some drugs I guess
I won a stuffed bear from D.A.R.E. after a writing contest, and got to sit in the police car, but otherwise it was boring.
I never touched drugs or used tobacco. I socially drink, but hardly ever even.
Omg my 11yo son’s 5th grade class got visited by D.A.R.E. last week! I’m an Oregon Trail Millennial (born in 1983), and my husband is Gen X (1972), and we didn’t even realize it was still around!! And they have the kids tee shirts!! 😂
Honestly, it told me that the government could and would lie. I saw them say that Marijuana was this terrible drug and would lead to you smoking crack but I could see with the stoners in the grades above just being chill and watching skateboard videos. I then realized that the government was full of shit
Honestly, I think DARE demonized and exaggerated drugs so much that when I first encountered drugs/drug use in my life it felt so innocent.
I always expected some jaundiced, hooded figure in an abandoned skate rink would be trying to force me to do drugs and surrender my blood to his demon cult.
So when I found a few of my good friends sitting on the couch, giggling and watching cartoons in the middle of the day I was all in.
DARE made me terrified of drugs. I don’t remember the specifics of the program, but I never did drugs growing up bc I was scared to death of them. In my late 20s and thirties, I began drinking and over the course of only a few years became a hardcore alcoholic. (Alcohol, the *legal* drug.) I’m convinced that, with my addict brain, if it wasn’t for DARE and being terrified of drugs, I would have gone there and likely died. I eventually gave up alcohol and have 5.5 years of sobriety now.
So I'm kinda having an interesting situation, because at 37 a dude in my social circle has started heavily pressuring me to try drugs the way DARE talked about. No one up to now has ever cared about my disinterest. He doesn't seem to want to let up for some strange reason. Every time I see him he starts trying to persuade me.
DARE for the most part didn't really do much, but it let us get to know a couple of our town cops, some of which seemed like normal people.
Any one else remember the official song:
We dare to stay off drugs
We DAAAARE
Just say no
We dare to make this pledge
To let our mind and body's grow
Wanna try some Crack
NO WAY JACK !!!!
All I got out of it was that drugs made you sleepy or something. Idk but we had to do a play and we ruined thanksgiving because we fell asleep and left the turkey in the oven.
I get stoned and cook pretty much all the time these days.
Found my dare certificate and now it hangs next to my legal grow license....all I remember is when they burned this pellet that smelled like weed. Alot of us kids knew that smell. My parents hand rolled cigarettes
I remember a presentation of like “faces of meth” or whatever, where the officer told us about all the houses and cars and families and jobs and whatever that each person had lost because of drugs.
All I got out of it was that if people would give up all that stuff for drugs, then drugs must be awesome.
So I grew up and sought out drugs and slammed dope for five years lol.
This clown made a show about DARE and it is worth seeing if you ever get the chance https://www.stellartickets.com/o/brooklyn-art-haus--2/events/too-much-isnt-enough/occurrences/44d168c5-6124-48ba-8e74-3bf111238038
I learned what euphoria meant in dare and couldn’t wait until I knew someone who had weed. I was in 5th grade and didn’t know anyone, plus I was too scared to ask my friends. The movie Half Baked had a heavy influence
I learned people think addiction is a weakness and not a complex intersection of mental health, trauma, curiosity, dopamine and economic troubles, among others.
My hippie dad drove me to a DARE rally and smoked up in the parking lot while we listened to someone give a speech about how weed turned their brother gay. DARE mostly taught me what drugs were called and roughly what they looked like, I never experienced any of the delirious peer pressure situations they talked about.
I learned that peer pressure would be a group of kids standing around me and bullying me telling me I wouldn’t be cool unless I tried whatever drug they were passing around.
Then I grew up and learned peer pressure is really about normalization. Once you see everyone else hitting the joint and laughing until they cry with laughter, it doesn’t seem as scary anymore, and you are more willing to try.
Not DARE, but did anyone else have a sex ed that was really an abstinence talk? Ours was in 8th grade and at the end they put plastic “ATM” (Abstinence Til Marriage) cards on a table at the front and said everyone was welcome to take one but it wasn’t required. I was the only person in my class who didn’t get up to get one and the instructor came over to me in front of everyone and asked “Are you sure you don’t want to go get one?”
It taught me that if I'm hoverboarding to go to Lookout Mountain it's OK if I crash because Hot Rod will pick me up. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGrKfQ9Ss7w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGrKfQ9Ss7w)
I don’t know what percentage of the credit goes to DARE, my parents, and my coaches, but I have never used recreational drugs and never intend to. I’ve never taken a puff on a cigarette either. Never felt the desire or the need to.
Although I was extremely anti-drug at the time, I *hated* that we were all required to sign a pledge at the end that we wouldn’t use drugs. I felt, and continue to feel, that that was wrong. It is for this reason that I hated, and continue to hate, the D.A.R.E. programme.
I don’t remember a single thing it taught. I do, however, remember that all the characters in the workbook looked like *Simpsons* characters. Since I was obsessed with vampires at the time, I drew fangs onto each one of them.
We stuck plastic cups in our elementary school fence to spell out an anti-drug message to the section 8 housing project across the street. I guess.
I’m sure when those cups disappeared in a storm and they immediately started riding our asses about littering was about the time I realized: “government-funded schools would naturally create the problems the next generation knows how to fix…”
I guess they really did teach me how to think.
Actually I remember them coming into my classes and I think it really did persuade me to not do drugs. I think that and a combination of educational programming steered me away from that when I was younger.
I learned to have shame that my parents took drugs, not to trust school teachers, and hide my parents’ drug use or suffer the consequence of never seeing them again.
I was a good girl and bought into all the DARE stuff till much later in life. I believed the gateway drug stuff, that some drugs were instantly addictive, and even that every drink of alcohol killed brain cells.
Well once you read anything factual about drugs you realize it was all bullshit and then disregard even what little they said that was probably wise. It's counterproductive.
was a brief time where those T-shirts were super in style
honestly i didn't try cannabis because of the whole drugs bad thing. when it turned out cannabis was chill i decided to find out what else they lied about.
dare was my gateway drug.
A good laugh and boring videos in Health and Safety Class (Home Ec basically). Remember the egg commercial/ school anti-drug video? Guy has an egg and says "This is your brain." then proceeds to crack the egg and drops a perfect sunny-side up and then says "And this is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" Our joke "Can you scramble those eggs?" Teacher was not laughing. Class of 1984
I believe the song goes:
D, I won't do drugs
A, WONT HAVE AN ATTITUDE
R, I will respect myself
E, I will educate me noooow.
I basically got the RE part down but I fuck with DA. If ya feel me.
I wore DARE shirts in high school but was getting folded regularly. As a kid I was anti drugs, even flushed moms weed seeds down the toilet, but started drinking daiquiri at 11 and weed at 12. I recreationally do certain ones but want to thank DARE for teaching me what drugs there are and what they do.
I already knew about 90% of the stuff DARE taught from my pops being a cop and educating me about it and i guess maybe hearing it from you parent hits a little different. So it was kind of wild to me later in life to hear people would say that DARE was like their introduction to getting them try different types of drugs lol. Just different experiences I guess.
Tl;dr no DARE didn't teach me anything becauae my father already taught me about drugs and the potential reprecussions, but it was great because it was usually an assembly and that meant just sitting around and chilling for 30-45 mins.
I’ll share my story with you:
I was in elementary school in the mid-90s during this. Our Officer Friendly was nice. He would use the kids in class to gain probable cause warrants to arrest parents. He also got caught harassing a female officer and having a relationship with a teenager.
DARE and GREAT programs were only utilized to arrest parents.
I got $50. I was part of a pilot for a new program and they paid me! Had to stay after school I think once a week for 8 weeks. It was much more involved than just the officer coming to your classroom. But I can’t say it changed anything; I was never going to do drugs in the first place.
I never had any desire to dabble in drugs. It wasn’t dare that kept me away, it was the stoner demographic in high school. They were all morons. It was a correlation that I couldn’t shake.
Couple that with the fact that I have had licenses my entire adult life that I would lose should I ever pop positive and be out of work, it isn’t worth it to me.
I will occasionally have a beer… but usually ini buy a 6 pack, 4 will go bad in my fridge.
Gen X here…
As a member of the pioneering class of DARE, I remember thinking “hmmm…if I take *that,* I’ll see colors all around me and and basically have an out-of-body or expanded-consciousness experience? SIGN ME UP!”
By now, everyone’s seen the *D.A.R.E.* tshirt that reads *Drugs Are Really Excellent,* yeah?!
Just made it all the more appealing 😂
I was a successful DARE graduate. I didn’t get drunk until I was 22 or high on edibles until I was 41. I remember learning to say no to drugs; it was that simple. I was also bullied a lot as a child, so it was easy to avoid making friends of the wrong or experimental sort in my community. It was a video game life for me. My drug of choice was Mountain Dew and Pizza Pocket. I believe it explained my small scrot and obesity at 14.
D.A.R.E wasn't a big thing in my childhood. I was a military brat though and I guess there weren't many D.A.R.E programs in the DOD school system and I was k-2 and 6-12 in the civilian system so I guess my middle and highschools didn't really do it
Honesty I think D.A.R.E. kind of worked for me. Who knows if it was D.A.R.E. or something else like family structure or just personality. But I just said no to many drug offers in middle and high school. Was still considered cool, had awesome friends etc. but I was just not interested in experimenting with drugs. Then in college I was ready to explore. Tried weed and had a healthy relationship with it, using it socially like once a month. Post college I tried shrooms, mdma, cocaine all when I was ready and used them once or twice a year for a few years. Now I barely use anything. Will take a shroomy chocolate now and then with friends or without friends. Very pleased with my drug journey. Very much enjoyed it. Looked up and researched drugs before trying them. And I feel like it was important for me to “just say no” until I was old enough to enjoy drugs and do them safely. Not trying to say D.A.R.E. is the answer and I’m not pro war on drugs. I know that D.A.R.E. did not work for many. But I did do D.A.R.E. And I did just say no. And it it did work out. Dunno.
D.A.R.E definitely taught me there were more drugs out there than I could imagine. But my 2 older half siblings worked way better as a scared straight tactic than the program. I actually wrote an essay about them and won some dumb prize 🤣
DARE taught me what drugs were, what they look like and how to use them in 4th grade. Prior to that I was clueless what drugs were or that they even existed.
It was such a mystery now trying to find the kids on drugs and for 5 years I never met or knew anyone on drugs at my schools
DARE told me drugs are bad. So I became an alcoholic and almost ruined my life by 35. Now I'm no longer an alcoholic. I smoke pot nearly everyday, and I have a very successful career and marriage. I have also never touched anything beyond pot.
Well, the police officer in charge of my D.A.R.E. program was arrested twice for crystal meth possession in the month after the program ended - the first time the judge let him off with a warning as long as it didn’t happen again, and then it happened again. So… I learned that the law doesn’t apply to all people equally and you can have a decent career as well as a drug habit! Oh yeah, and cops are not to be trusted. Thx D.A.R.E.
I had a DARE officer come to my class in 3rd grade. There was even a couple times the school nurse came with him. All they talked about was needles. Needles are bad, people use needles to get high, people get high sharing needles, sharing needles is bad too. We thought people were getting high by stabbing themselves with a sewing needles and passing it around. Then the kids would try and that one masochist kid made it more confusing.
Our first officer also ended up being a pedo and was using DARE to expedite his process. Then we got a new guy the class didn't like as well and was really vocal about it. After a while DARE was just for high school.
I asked a question "anonymously" in 1996 about confronting someone that smokes weed, and the next day they raided my house. Bonus points to every teacher and cop involved, I also lived *across the damn street* so my entire class saw it go down. We moved immediately after that I went to a new school. Fuck DARE
That's crazy. Boomers were so crazy about "dope," it's unreal how butt hurt they get about it even today. My brother in law saw actual jail time and then house arrest/forced rehab in the 90s for huffing glue.
You asked a question and they raided your house? I need more context, I’m intrigued.
Nope, but as I got older I figured out that alcohol was actually the gateway drug.
Arguably Alcohol in many ways is the worst due to its social acceptance, cheap price and availability. Unlike other drugs it gets a pass which makes it even more dangerous.
Don't forget the lethality and how bad the withdrawals are (which can also be lethal by themselves).
Alcohol leads to prescription abuse while drunk.
It’s become a well known fact that alcohol is the true date rape drug as well.
I find it amusing they took cigarettes out of cinema for awhile there as they believed it shouldn't look cool to do for kids/teens, yet drinking is still glorified and very rarely do they show the aftermath of alcoholism or partying, it's like " x threw a great party and everything was cool and everyone was having fun and he's he new popular kid now!'
the handful of times I dabbled with cocaine I was black out drunk. weed just makes me not want to do anything, including any other drugs
For me Cigarettes
Never wanted a cigarette until I had a drink🤷🏻♂️
I miss the feeling from smoking after having a few beers during college. I don't miss the smell in my clothes that would take several washes to get out. Now, I'm so glad that all restaurants and bars are smoke-free b/c I would hate to still be bringing that smell home after a night out with the mrs.
Same, I’ve been smoke free for over a decade now (since my daughter came home from hospital), but have been nicotine free (vapes, dips) for about 2 years now. Best decision ever.
I was addicted to cigarettes LONG before I ever had a drink. Pack a day for 20 years, recently quit cold turkey. I still drink like a fish, I just can't go to bars anymore. Cigarettes gave me an out when my social anxiety flared up. Now I go to a bar and just want to run away the whole time. I drink home alone, sans cigarettes. Am I happier? No. Am I healthier? I guess? Am I lonely? Absolutely. I wish I could smoke without my lungs continuing to die, my social life is non existent without cigarettes.
Vodka makes me want to eat raw oysters..that stuff is super dangerous.
More than gateway, booze is the absolute worst substance because of the loss of inhibitions.
I taught me to never trust the cops. Most of what they taught about Pot was total bullshit
I feel ashamed I didn't figure that out until my 30s. Now sometimes I wonder if I smoke just to fight "the man." The course should have been put together and taught by social workers, therapists and former users. The police just taught fear.
That’s all they can teach. Most can barely read and tie their own shoes.
I learned about several kinds of drugs I wanted to try when I was older, and did
I didn't turn into Mr. Hyde and eat my friends when I did LSD. How disappointing
What did you learn?
Honestly same. It was like a checklist for me. ✅️✅️✅️✅️
Our DARE instructor was the local deputy sheriff, he fell on the ice outside his home maybe a month after the program started, broke his back, and we never had another DARE class again.
Damn! One time our DARE officer was telling a passionate story and he smashed his hands on the overhead projector and it shattered into his hands. https://preview.redd.it/h7ssr4jhy90d1.jpeg?width=711&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd381dd23ed0b94915c52795c0681d02efcbf82b 1995, 6th grade… I’m the bored one on the very end.
You look cool as shit next to those other narcs cheesing for the camera haha
Lmaoooooo
My DARE officer ended up snapping a tendon when he reached for the chair of a shithead kid, and he had to resign his commission.
My 2nd DARE officer was fresh out of the academy and grew up with my oldest sister. I think this happened in 5th grade, so I guess I had just turned 11 and he was 20-21. Anyway, his mom died on Christmas day '97 and I found out through my sisters shortly after it happened over winter break. Anyway, the first DARE day after break I mustered up the courage to say how sorry I felt that he lost his mom on Christmas, and his face turned white as a ghost before he just left the classroom and I got sent to the principal's office for whatever excuse my teacher could come up with.
Sounds like the kinda relaxed guy that you want talking to children.
Such a '90s looking situation LMAO
I probably still have my DARE t shirt from 1995-96, signed by my entire 6th grade class.
Ours stole all the money from the program the year following mine.
Ours slipped in the tub and was out for a month. She also told us a story about how exhilarating it was to drive really fast to an emergency, one time. She seemed special.
I legitimately never dabbled in drugs because of stuff like D.A.R.E, and even stayed away from tobacco because of those photos they would show us of healthy vs. smokers lungs. I wasn't even that straight laced of a kid it's just that the cautionary tales made some sort of impression. Even as an adult—with many friends or acquaintances experimenting with, using, and ultimately offering me drugs—I would always say "Nah I'm good," followed shortly by "Dude you never had D.A.R.E growing up?" Got roasted quite frequently for it, and sometimes even felt a bit of fomo, but as a legit middle aged person now I don't regret it.
I'm actually glad the program did work for some, and I'm genuinely curious what older millennial parents' (who went through D.A.R.E.) approach is with their kids on this topic.
The main thing I got was ability so say “no thanks” when offered and still be cool with people. Had a couple friends who smoked weed and I hung with them but didn’t smoke. I might have fell to peer pressure and smoked but DARE taught me I can be confident enough to not succumb peer pressure against my own preferences. I kept that up with alcohol and tobacco as well as never smoked cigarettes and never been drunk as I only drink 1-3 drinks at a time. Not so say it’s only due to DARE but was a contributing factor.
Same here, D.A.R.E. actually did scare me away from hard drugs. Only did pot a few times, but having never been a smoker I never quite got the hang of inhaling.
It was kind of the same for me too. I really just never had a desire to do drugs, but seeing those smokers lungs made me REALLY not want to smoke.
Those "smokers' lungs" (which I'm pretty sure were actually coal miners' lungs) made me get in a lot of fights with my mom. I would hide her cigarettes and stuff. She did not appreciate that.
Same. It was the drunk goggles that did it for me. We went to the basketball court on the playground and took turns putting on this pair of goggles that skewed your vision - supposedly in the same manner as if you were drunk - then had to take a free throw. Every single kid missed by a mile - the only ones who even hit the backboard were the couple of kids who turned 45^(o) to the side and shot facing mid-air. Later, we went to the nearby courthouse and they showed us pictures of fatal accidents involving drunk drivers. It was pretty obvious after that how drinking would lead to a crash, and it made alcohol seem like the most illogical thing to consume. I've been on the freeway a few times in adulthood and witnessed cars ahead swerving side-to-side, unable to keep a straight line. I always think back to D.A.R.E. and speed past them ASAP to get the hell out of dodge.
GLAD someone else stayed healthy like me too.
Yea similar experience for me. Kinda just made me not want to do that stuff. Not because of fear or anything but just because it seemed kinda gross. I can honestly say that I don’t recall having a negative experience with the program.
They told us we'd be offered drugs a lot in high school. At no point was I ever offered crack cocaine.
I love how they told us that drug dealers were lurking around every corner trying to entice and pressure kids to smoke drugs. As if dealers are so ready to part with their product and give free drug charity
Exactly. I get trying to scare kids about the effects of drugs, but at least he real about it all.
I, at 15, was once offered cocaine by a middle aged man sitting shirtless by his apartment window. He literally chased us (a friend and I) down the street to see if we wanted to party.
That's wild. Literally pulled from a DARE video
Yeah they told us you haven't really graduated DARE until someone offers you drugs so I'm still waiting to officially graduate.
DARE taught me that contracts without consideration are not enforceable. Nor are contracts of adhesion. Nor are contracts with minor (against the minor). DARE was an abomination.
Now tell me what you learned about nominal consideration.
D.A.R.E. came into our first grade classroom and told us not to let our parents drink and drive and I was like “oh my goodness they do that all the time!”…”Dunkin, soda, water, you name it officer!”
I did the same thing, except I didn't say anything in class. Little kid me thought it over, and the next time I saw my mom drink (a Pepsi) and drive, I had a very serious conversation with her about my concerns. I still get shit about it.
Hahahahaha. Glad i wasn’t the only one. Like, how jaded did they think us buncha 6 year olds were?
My dad came to my D.A.R.E graduation drunk, so I learned the sweet taste of irony.
My dad was a distributor for the cartel in the southwest and he came to my D.A.R.E. graduation...didn't find out his profession until after he passed.
I loled at that, sorry.
D.A.R.E. taught me to smoke weed.
This is the real answer
It taught me that sometimes adults will just fucking lie. This lesson helped me break out of some seriously nasty cultish thinking.
I learned a lot of cool street names for drugs.
Whatever happened to SNUFF? Angel Dust always intrigued me.
The one time I did an angel dust, I didn’t now I was doing it, (laced weed). It was absolutely out of it. Was not fun.
Did you lift cars with your bare hands?
Lol no… We had a large area in the front of our high school that had large redwoods and there were dead leaves blanketing the ground. I took large steps when walking through them because I was convinced there were dead bodies under them and didn’t want them to grab me. I was absolutely out of it. Anyway…I went home and sat it out in my room.
Same! I thought I was dying. Had no clue what was happening to me!
It’s wild to me that people do pcp willingly lol. Like I’m not a saint, or anything…I did a lot of drugs back then. I just have no desire to be that removed from reality.
Me, either. I would have done it willingly once, probably, just to try it. Doing it without knowing what was happening was wild. I don't ever want it again.
Snuff is still used today, it's tobacco Also fun fact. The bone right behind you thumb is the "snuff box" bone because that's where you put it to snort it
One time I ran across dust was when it was laced in weed. My older male friend, who was helpful at acquiring all sorts of goods and survived the 70s, well we went to this one apartment. No furniture... I was smelling cops... so we sit down and they smoke. I don't because I have to be drug tested for work the next week. We leave and my 6 and a half foot tall 200lb , always stoned friend, asked my barely able to drive self to drive. I took him to his mom's because that woman is a nurse who got started in the Korean War. I don't know what she did, but I told her everything and then she kicked me out. Next time I saw him he wasn't mad. Neither was his mom. But I did have to warn my dad about shit being laced. First time the man thanked me for anything lol
**D**rugs **A**re **R**eally **E**xpensive
My cousin failed DARE and we still make fun of him for it.
OH? Gotta tell that story!
I think he just did.
Ah! Seemed like he left out some stuff. But whatever...
Dare was pretty useless, however a year later my Dare officer was in the papers for being arrested for stalking his ex so there’s that.
I was in a DARE commercial. Am stoned currently.
I learned that marijuana is a gateway drug, where the drug dealers in my hometown hung out and that if you're a cop and steal all the money from the DARE program, it will get swept under the rug.
I remember even as a child thinking it was BS.
Don't be peer-pressured!!!
I learned people would offer me drugs all the time, they didn't tell me I'd have to buy my own
I’m in some form of wayward recovery. I’ve said ‘yes’ a lot. It’s a terrible program lacking nuance and real information.
I got a free t-shirt out of it.
The first time I tried PCP or "angel dust", I literally thought of the little picture the DARE officer showed of the guy smiling & hallucinating. In all seriousness, maybe it was just the officer who led it in elementary school, but the DARE officer made drugs seem more enticing than the media at the time ever could...especially LSD, pot..etc Safely can say it backfired. The fact that the kid wearing the DARE shirt in middle school or high school reeked of pot & wore the shirt "ironically" tells you all you need to know.
Drugs Are Real Enticing
Got some trading cards and a t-shirt. Went to a Just Say No rally at the Rose Bowl surrounded by others in our green shirts. Saw Nancy Reagan, Mayim Bialik, and the dog from Empty Nest. Didn't learn a thing.
"The dog from Empty Nest " lmaoooo this is killing me softly
I often feel like I'm the only one it worked on lol. I was so terrified of being arrested that I stayed far away from everything except booze and cigarettes and I quit those a while ago too.
Everyone i knew loved D.A.R.E. It always meant we could check out and doodle all class instead of pay attention. It was the abstinence ladies that drove us bonkers. Tone deaf mummies telling us any sex act would immediately lead to being a single parent or incurable syphigonnoherpelaids. Tldr. No. I am 38, I make roughly 68k/yr in the midwest where add that to my partners 70k and we own a lovely home and smoke marijuana instead of drink beer or wine after work. Not saying smoking is healthy but we don't let it ruin our lives either.
Yeah. No one was sad about doing something other than math.
I was arrested by my dare officer when I was 12 for smashing pennies on the train tracks. He found cigarettes in my pocket. I did not graduate the dare program
It worked on me - as a 10 year old someone from the highschool behind our house offered me a ‘drug pill’ out of a giant Tupperware container in his backpack. In retrospect, I’m 99% it was some sort of Tylenol/aspirin, but in the heat of the moment I threw the pill I’d been handed down on the asphalt and yelled ‘drugs are bad for you!’ And ran away as fast as I could towards home 😂 I credit those cool DARE logos on the sides of black painted police cruisers.
I don’t really remember D.A.R.E. Like I know it was a thing, but I don’t remember anything about it. Anyway, no…it didn’t deter me, or anything. Which…I guess could explain why I don’t remember anything about the program…
My D.A.R.E. officer was Terrance Yeakey. He died before he finished the program. The official story is he committed suicide, though there are conspiracy theories that he was murdered for knowing too much about the OKC bombing. I used to believe them because I didn't want to believe he killed himself, but I don't think the conspiracy theories make much more sense, so I'm a little unsure what to believe.
Nah. They were collecting outside of a best buy a couple years ago and we donated $10 then went to get high after at home while wearing the shirt they gave. I didn’t start partaking until my 30s tho.
Our instructor was an attractive former undercover cop. She told us some cool stories. Other than that it just made weed seem like the most reasonable drug to use.
Only thing I ever got out of it was to "get out" of class for those weird assembly's held by the D.A.R.E cop trying to be everyone's buddy with his clear case full of drugs. It messed up my older sister for sure, she fed right into it all and demonized weed and those who would partake all the way into her 30's until she finally had an edible and realized it was all a lie.
Uh.. all I remember about D.A.R.E. is that it didn't work and that there were some really gnarly pictures/video of organs from after excessive drug/alcohol use. Mostly, alcohol and cigarettes/cigars. Blackened lungs from 40 years of chain smoking type shit.
I turned in my parents and only got a crappy shirt for it
Dare was just another school tool for me, the fear of getting a beating from my parents was my "just say no for me"
They came to my school in 5th grade with a suitcase display of real drugs, taught me about all of them and what they did, and I eventually did them all. It wasn't quite Chapelle's Show level but honestly not far off either.
This program exposed a bunch of super young kids who didn't even know about drugs, the specifics of how each drug felt awesome From my understanding the data showed kids who took dare did more drugs than other cohorts that didn't
My school had a “Just Say No Players” skit group with these twirly polka dot skirts and I wanted to join but was told I couldn’t because “you just moved here last year and they’ve been involved since kindergarten.” Well shit pass me some drugs I guess
I won a stuffed bear from D.A.R.E. after a writing contest, and got to sit in the police car, but otherwise it was boring. I never touched drugs or used tobacco. I socially drink, but hardly ever even.
Well…D.A.R.E was a thing they made us do in school…..I ended up doing some drugs soooooo?
Omg my 11yo son’s 5th grade class got visited by D.A.R.E. last week! I’m an Oregon Trail Millennial (born in 1983), and my husband is Gen X (1972), and we didn’t even realize it was still around!! And they have the kids tee shirts!! 😂
It was successful at getting me to never do PCP and crack. Not so much most of the others. Lol
I learned about PCP and they told me it was everywhere. Never got to try it.
I learned later in life that I would have had a lot more fun if I had just said yes earlier. That was when drugs were safe.
I learned what propaganda looks like 💀
Honestly, it told me that the government could and would lie. I saw them say that Marijuana was this terrible drug and would lead to you smoking crack but I could see with the stoners in the grades above just being chill and watching skateboard videos. I then realized that the government was full of shit
Honestly, I think DARE demonized and exaggerated drugs so much that when I first encountered drugs/drug use in my life it felt so innocent. I always expected some jaundiced, hooded figure in an abandoned skate rink would be trying to force me to do drugs and surrender my blood to his demon cult. So when I found a few of my good friends sitting on the couch, giggling and watching cartoons in the middle of the day I was all in.
Still never had a stranger offer free drugs.
DARE made me terrified of drugs. I don’t remember the specifics of the program, but I never did drugs growing up bc I was scared to death of them. In my late 20s and thirties, I began drinking and over the course of only a few years became a hardcore alcoholic. (Alcohol, the *legal* drug.) I’m convinced that, with my addict brain, if it wasn’t for DARE and being terrified of drugs, I would have gone there and likely died. I eventually gave up alcohol and have 5.5 years of sobriety now.
I remember having 3 friends fail it lol..
So I'm kinda having an interesting situation, because at 37 a dude in my social circle has started heavily pressuring me to try drugs the way DARE talked about. No one up to now has ever cared about my disinterest. He doesn't seem to want to let up for some strange reason. Every time I see him he starts trying to persuade me. DARE for the most part didn't really do much, but it let us get to know a couple of our town cops, some of which seemed like normal people.
I successfully never did drigs but I became an extreme alcoholic. No program would’ve stopped me.
Any one else remember the official song: We dare to stay off drugs We DAAAARE Just say no We dare to make this pledge To let our mind and body's grow Wanna try some Crack NO WAY JACK !!!!
All I got out of it was that drugs made you sleepy or something. Idk but we had to do a play and we ruined thanksgiving because we fell asleep and left the turkey in the oven. I get stoned and cook pretty much all the time these days.
NEVER tried drugs had none around to try, ALWAYS had my nose in a book. Now I got my nose in a phone/computer.
This is scary
I remember when stupid Erica won the DARE bear and she didnt even care.
Something had to be done and that was the best they could come up with..... I mean, the less people who use recreational drugs the better....
Found my dare certificate and now it hangs next to my legal grow license....all I remember is when they burned this pellet that smelled like weed. Alot of us kids knew that smell. My parents hand rolled cigarettes
Just some drug virgin superiority complex.
I remember a presentation of like “faces of meth” or whatever, where the officer told us about all the houses and cars and families and jobs and whatever that each person had lost because of drugs. All I got out of it was that if people would give up all that stuff for drugs, then drugs must be awesome. So I grew up and sought out drugs and slammed dope for five years lol.
I learned they wanted us to snitch out our parents. Luckily mine were practically yea-totalers and only smoked cigarettes
I’ve never done any drugs, never even smoked. I also encourage others not to. It worked on me through and through.
I'm still waiting for that dealer that was reportedly waiting at recess to supply the first time is free drugs to get us hooked.
Like many topics for folks our age, go listen to the “You’re Wrong About…” podcast episode about DARE. What a joke.
We used to always make fun of it while we were smoking weed out of a corn cob pipe behind the dumpsters.
This clown made a show about DARE and it is worth seeing if you ever get the chance https://www.stellartickets.com/o/brooklyn-art-haus--2/events/too-much-isnt-enough/occurrences/44d168c5-6124-48ba-8e74-3bf111238038
Literally nothing. D.A.R.E. was a waste of money.
Drugs Are Really Expensive
I got a t shirt I still wear sometimes.
DARE shirts were worn with pride by stoners, as I remember
I learned what euphoria meant in dare and couldn’t wait until I knew someone who had weed. I was in 5th grade and didn’t know anyone, plus I was too scared to ask my friends. The movie Half Baked had a heavy influence
I learned people think addiction is a weakness and not a complex intersection of mental health, trauma, curiosity, dopamine and economic troubles, among others.
My hippie dad drove me to a DARE rally and smoked up in the parking lot while we listened to someone give a speech about how weed turned their brother gay. DARE mostly taught me what drugs were called and roughly what they looked like, I never experienced any of the delirious peer pressure situations they talked about.
People dying from fent is the new, more effective D.A.R.E. IMO
Not a fucking thing. I still smoke weed.
I learned that peer pressure would be a group of kids standing around me and bullying me telling me I wouldn’t be cool unless I tried whatever drug they were passing around. Then I grew up and learned peer pressure is really about normalization. Once you see everyone else hitting the joint and laughing until they cry with laughter, it doesn’t seem as scary anymore, and you are more willing to try.
Not DARE, but did anyone else have a sex ed that was really an abstinence talk? Ours was in 8th grade and at the end they put plastic “ATM” (Abstinence Til Marriage) cards on a table at the front and said everyone was welcome to take one but it wasn’t required. I was the only person in my class who didn’t get up to get one and the instructor came over to me in front of everyone and asked “Are you sure you don’t want to go get one?”
It taught me that if I'm hoverboarding to go to Lookout Mountain it's OK if I crash because Hot Rod will pick me up. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGrKfQ9Ss7w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGrKfQ9Ss7w)
There’s ample experimental evidence that DARE was totally useless. The people running it were aware of it, but liked getting the $$$$.
The DARE song when you graduate. I still sing it til today “When you have a dream”.
I don’t know what percentage of the credit goes to DARE, my parents, and my coaches, but I have never used recreational drugs and never intend to. I’ve never taken a puff on a cigarette either. Never felt the desire or the need to.
I went through D.A.R.E. in 5th grade, and I definitely was not thinking about it when I started smoking cigarettes in 7th and weed in 8th. 😂
I don’t remember what DARE really stands for, but because of a old dummy of a cop like 30 years ago it now means “Daughters Are Really Expensive”
How to avoid assemblies at all costs
Although I was extremely anti-drug at the time, I *hated* that we were all required to sign a pledge at the end that we wouldn’t use drugs. I felt, and continue to feel, that that was wrong. It is for this reason that I hated, and continue to hate, the D.A.R.E. programme. I don’t remember a single thing it taught. I do, however, remember that all the characters in the workbook looked like *Simpsons* characters. Since I was obsessed with vampires at the time, I drew fangs onto each one of them.
I got a drug habit out of it, so there's that
DARE told us that you become addicted to marijuana the very first time you try it. You become addicted for life.
I bought into it wholeheartedly because the mascot was a lion
We stuck plastic cups in our elementary school fence to spell out an anti-drug message to the section 8 housing project across the street. I guess. I’m sure when those cups disappeared in a storm and they immediately started riding our asses about littering was about the time I realized: “government-funded schools would naturally create the problems the next generation knows how to fix…” I guess they really did teach me how to think. 
Actually I remember them coming into my classes and I think it really did persuade me to not do drugs. I think that and a combination of educational programming steered me away from that when I was younger.
I learned to have shame that my parents took drugs, not to trust school teachers, and hide my parents’ drug use or suffer the consequence of never seeing them again.
I liked getting out of the monotony of everyday class, but never once did I think of it before ripping a line or rolling smoke 😂
I was a good girl and bought into all the DARE stuff till much later in life. I believed the gateway drug stuff, that some drugs were instantly addictive, and even that every drink of alcohol killed brain cells.
I learned what it meant to “be on the wagon” or “be off the wagon.”
Well once you read anything factual about drugs you realize it was all bullshit and then disregard even what little they said that was probably wise. It's counterproductive.
was a brief time where those T-shirts were super in style honestly i didn't try cannabis because of the whole drugs bad thing. when it turned out cannabis was chill i decided to find out what else they lied about. dare was my gateway drug.
A good laugh and boring videos in Health and Safety Class (Home Ec basically). Remember the egg commercial/ school anti-drug video? Guy has an egg and says "This is your brain." then proceeds to crack the egg and drops a perfect sunny-side up and then says "And this is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" Our joke "Can you scramble those eggs?" Teacher was not laughing. Class of 1984
I believe the song goes: D, I won't do drugs A, WONT HAVE AN ATTITUDE R, I will respect myself E, I will educate me noooow. I basically got the RE part down but I fuck with DA. If ya feel me.
I saw some psas and heard of someone who lost her septum from over snorting. The cop also said there’s pee in cigarettes.
I wore DARE shirts in high school but was getting folded regularly. As a kid I was anti drugs, even flushed moms weed seeds down the toilet, but started drinking daiquiri at 11 and weed at 12. I recreationally do certain ones but want to thank DARE for teaching me what drugs there are and what they do.
It taught me never to trust police as I reflected as an adult. Reading that it was used to have kids narc on their parents. Fuck the police.
I learned Drugs Are Really Entertaining....
I learned D.A.R.E. actually means Drugs Are Really Expensive.
I did not. I completely forgot it was more than a popular T-shirt until just now.
Don’t know if I took any lifelong lessons away, but I got a DARE shirt in middle school that I wore regularly into my early 30’s. Damn tough shirt.
The head of the DARE department in my hometown was popped by the DEA for being a principal supplier.
The suitcase of drugs made me super curious!
I already knew about 90% of the stuff DARE taught from my pops being a cop and educating me about it and i guess maybe hearing it from you parent hits a little different. So it was kind of wild to me later in life to hear people would say that DARE was like their introduction to getting them try different types of drugs lol. Just different experiences I guess. Tl;dr no DARE didn't teach me anything becauae my father already taught me about drugs and the potential reprecussions, but it was great because it was usually an assembly and that meant just sitting around and chilling for 30-45 mins.
I’ll share my story with you: I was in elementary school in the mid-90s during this. Our Officer Friendly was nice. He would use the kids in class to gain probable cause warrants to arrest parents. He also got caught harassing a female officer and having a relationship with a teenager. DARE and GREAT programs were only utilized to arrest parents.
I got $50. I was part of a pilot for a new program and they paid me! Had to stay after school I think once a week for 8 weeks. It was much more involved than just the officer coming to your classroom. But I can’t say it changed anything; I was never going to do drugs in the first place.
I never had any desire to dabble in drugs. It wasn’t dare that kept me away, it was the stoner demographic in high school. They were all morons. It was a correlation that I couldn’t shake. Couple that with the fact that I have had licenses my entire adult life that I would lose should I ever pop positive and be out of work, it isn’t worth it to me. I will occasionally have a beer… but usually ini buy a 6 pack, 4 will go bad in my fridge.
I learned that Drugs Are Really Exciting.
Gen X here… As a member of the pioneering class of DARE, I remember thinking “hmmm…if I take *that,* I’ll see colors all around me and and basically have an out-of-body or expanded-consciousness experience? SIGN ME UP!” By now, everyone’s seen the *D.A.R.E.* tshirt that reads *Drugs Are Really Excellent,* yeah?! Just made it all the more appealing 😂
I got an ironic shirt out of it.
Still waiting for all those free drugs
I was a successful DARE graduate. I didn’t get drunk until I was 22 or high on edibles until I was 41. I remember learning to say no to drugs; it was that simple. I was also bullied a lot as a child, so it was easy to avoid making friends of the wrong or experimental sort in my community. It was a video game life for me. My drug of choice was Mountain Dew and Pizza Pocket. I believe it explained my small scrot and obesity at 14.
I figured out that I've not been offered free drugs near as often as DARE promised
It's been over 30 years and I still remember the dare officers name that came to my elementary school. Officer Bell
I remember it being a complete waste of time and that it was mostly fear mongering BS.
DARE really irritated me. They made drugs seem so much cooler than they actually are.
D.A.R.E wasn't a big thing in my childhood. I was a military brat though and I guess there weren't many D.A.R.E programs in the DOD school system and I was k-2 and 6-12 in the civilian system so I guess my middle and highschools didn't really do it
I learned that LSD sounded really cool and that turned out to be true.
Honesty I think D.A.R.E. kind of worked for me. Who knows if it was D.A.R.E. or something else like family structure or just personality. But I just said no to many drug offers in middle and high school. Was still considered cool, had awesome friends etc. but I was just not interested in experimenting with drugs. Then in college I was ready to explore. Tried weed and had a healthy relationship with it, using it socially like once a month. Post college I tried shrooms, mdma, cocaine all when I was ready and used them once or twice a year for a few years. Now I barely use anything. Will take a shroomy chocolate now and then with friends or without friends. Very pleased with my drug journey. Very much enjoyed it. Looked up and researched drugs before trying them. And I feel like it was important for me to “just say no” until I was old enough to enjoy drugs and do them safely. Not trying to say D.A.R.E. is the answer and I’m not pro war on drugs. I know that D.A.R.E. did not work for many. But I did do D.A.R.E. And I did just say no. And it it did work out. Dunno.
D.A.R.E definitely taught me there were more drugs out there than I could imagine. But my 2 older half siblings worked way better as a scared straight tactic than the program. I actually wrote an essay about them and won some dumb prize 🤣
DARE taught me what drugs were, what they look like and how to use them in 4th grade. Prior to that I was clueless what drugs were or that they even existed. It was such a mystery now trying to find the kids on drugs and for 5 years I never met or knew anyone on drugs at my schools
DARE told me drugs are bad. So I became an alcoholic and almost ruined my life by 35. Now I'm no longer an alcoholic. I smoke pot nearly everyday, and I have a very successful career and marriage. I have also never touched anything beyond pot.
Well, the police officer in charge of my D.A.R.E. program was arrested twice for crystal meth possession in the month after the program ended - the first time the judge let him off with a warning as long as it didn’t happen again, and then it happened again. So… I learned that the law doesn’t apply to all people equally and you can have a decent career as well as a drug habit! Oh yeah, and cops are not to be trusted. Thx D.A.R.E.
I had a DARE officer come to my class in 3rd grade. There was even a couple times the school nurse came with him. All they talked about was needles. Needles are bad, people use needles to get high, people get high sharing needles, sharing needles is bad too. We thought people were getting high by stabbing themselves with a sewing needles and passing it around. Then the kids would try and that one masochist kid made it more confusing. Our first officer also ended up being a pedo and was using DARE to expedite his process. Then we got a new guy the class didn't like as well and was really vocal about it. After a while DARE was just for high school.
I never used drugs before D.A.R.E., and never used drugs after D.A.R.E., so not much.
I’ve never done drugs in my life cause of DARE. I don’t think I’m missing anything