The Long Beach Police Department faces a budget crisis that threatens to reduce critical services, and Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Shipske chooses this moment to propose spending more money on DARE, the bogus anti-drug education program aimed at school kids. Shipske proposed Tuesday to fund the program with a tax on all the things we’re supposed to hate, including tobacco, alcohol and sex—no, not sex: spray paint. Spray paint.

“I don’t know if DARE is effective or not,” said Mayor Bob Foster. “I frankly don’t know it if is a fit anymore. I would like any study to include those topics.”

We can make this pretty easy. Countless studies in government and academia suggest that DARE spends millions to produce no benefit at all. A 1999 University of Kentucky study concluded, “Our results are consistent in documenting the absence of beneficial effects associated with the DARE program. This was true whether the outcome consisted of actual drug use or merely attitudes toward drug use.” Another summary says “scientific evaluation studies have consistently shown that DARE is ineffective in reducing the use of alcohol and drugs and is sometimes even counterproductive — worse than doing nothing. That’s the conclusion of the U.S. General Accounting Office, the U.S. Surgeon General, the National Academy of Sciences, and the U.S. Department of Education, among many others.” Some of those others include the Canadian government, the state of California and the University of Illinois.

Tags: anti-drug programs, bob foster, children, DARE, drug use, GAO, Gerrie Shipskie, Long Beach, police, red ribbon, school, The District Weekly

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Theo Douglas 1 year ago 1 point
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There they go again, hating on spray paint--as if it isn't hated enough.
Did you know that you still have to be 18 to buy spray paint--or to sell hubcaps? The implication, of course, is that if you're 17 and younger, the hubcaps are stolen (a throwback to the 1950s when there were these things called hubcaps--and kids stole them)--and you're going to go out and bomb a building with that spray paint.
And yes, in this instance, "bomb" is slang for "paint with a spray can." In certain circles a spray can is known as a "spray bomb."
That is all.

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wswaim 1 year ago 1 point
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In the District, Mayor Bob comes off as one of the few smart politicians in America. Guy has the courage to doubt the wisdom of an NFL team in Long Beach AND expresses skepticism of DARE? I watched the Republican debate last night, and Foster is smarter than all of 'em.

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