So, DARE doesn’t really work. Sorry. It turns out telling kids not to do something doesn’t actually make them not do it.

Some studies have found that DARE and its updated model Keepin’ it REAL are actually associated with an increase in drug use. This was more pronounced in suburban youth too, suggesting that the program actually provided a normalized introduction to drugs as a cultural element to kids who never knew much about them.

Plus, once kids realize that a lot of their older friends were smoking weed and drinking beers without going crazy, just like their moms and dads and all those fancy adults on TV, they begin doubting the messenger. Teachers and police officers lose lots of credibility in their eyes once they see that the purpose of education is control, not empowerment towards informed choices. “If they were lying about how dangerous weed is, maybe they’re lying about how dangerous meth is” a teen might think.

Remember that humans have a lot of reflexes against authoritarianism, like choosing to do something taboo or forbidden when they feel their agency is being constricted. By telling them what not to do, we’re just telling them exactly what to do in order to carve out their independence. This isn’t just a teenage impulse either. It’s a central motif in Orwell’s 1984, that book everyone cites but no one reads. The more drugs were framed as part of an exotic underworld subculture, the more it seemed like a rebellious escape from the highly institutionalized world they’re stuck in. The zero-tolerance concept amplified this distinction; if even trying drugs once meant you were no longer a “clean” student, then you might as well keep going because you’ve already failed.

Who would’ve guessed that kids need actual role models to emulate who provide consistent positive reinforcement instead of lectures and anti-drug chants?

(Yes, I’m still upset that the song they made us memorize in elementary school is stuck in my head. It’s also ironic that one of the kids they chose to read an assignment for an audience of parents ended up heavily addicted to weed beginning in high school. The program was a bit of a joke when I went through it in the late 2000s.)

Nothing Daring about DARE

You might be wondering how a program like this gets implemented with such dismal evidence behind it. The answer is disappointingly simple.

The Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1986 (DFSCA) mandated that all educational institutions receiving federal funding must implement a Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Program (DAAPP). Because most policymakers have no scientific background, they neglected to include a stipulation that the programs should have scientific evidence that they could reduce substance abuse. That came later in 1998 through guidelines issues by the Department of Education. In the meantime, school districts found DARE to be an easy way to check that box. Parents loved it for being a visible community initiative they could easily understand and which echoes the same advice they give before they kids go out: “just say no to drinks and drugs… until you’re 21 and then you can join us at the bar.”

Anecdotally, based on the people in recovery I’ve met, there’s a decent chance that a child is using substances because their parent or siblings introduced them. I assume that the suburban parents would be a little less enthusiastic about a program that was teaching their kids to look out for irresponsible adults alongside peer pressure.

After the 1998 guidelines, school boards began dropping DARE, which prompted DARE as an organization to respond with an update called Keepin’ it REAL.

In order to align with the scientific evidence at the time about successful interventions, Keepin’ it REAL made the shift from “Just Say No” to “The choice is yours.” It dropped the scare tactics in favor of teaching communication tactics to turn down drugs, translating the problem from a moral battle to expressing a personal preference. It drew on scientific literature from the fields of communication competence theory, narrative prevention theory, and social norms theory. In theory, this sounds like it validates autonomy. REAL stands for:

R: Refuse casually (“No thanks”)
E: Explain to diffuse tension (“I have a project to finish at home”)
A: Avoid unwanted environments
L: Leave if a situation feels uncomfortable

As for normalizing drugs, the new curriculum presents data to students that the vast majority of kids their age are not using substances, which turned down the hysteria that led kids to think everyone is doing it.

Again - in theory this should have been the case. In practice, a 2010 assessment of 29 schools found that “Students receiving either version of the kiR intervention in only the 5th grade report greater increases in substance use than did control students.” So, we’re still giving interesting knowledge about drugs to kids who previously had no knowledge or interest in drugs.

Why Education is Doomed to Fail

It didn’t surprise me at all that these programs are largely ineffective and occasionally detrimental to students. They stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of why people choose to use drugs and what drugs themselves actually do.

A 2024 study by Gene Hyeman, Ehri Ryu, and Hiram Brownell out of Boston College found that decreasing intergenerational income mobility (i.e. are children likely to earn less than their parents) was the single strongest predictor of drug overdose deaths. Regional lack of economic opportunity was a stronger predictor than local opioid prescription rates in predicted spikes of overdose clusters. At the individual level, a parental history of substance abuse (a mix of genetic predisposition and environmental factors) is the biggest risk factor for early onset addiction.

Meanwhile, one of the most effective behavioral interventions into addictions is Contingency Management, where someone is rewarded with immediate gratification from another source like prizes to directly compete with the immediate gratification of the addictive behavior. As a patient chooses the former over time, the brain strengthens the pathways related to executive functioning required to get the reward. A 2025 study (Coughlin et. al) of about 3000 veterans found that CM interventions led to a 41% decrease in the likelihood of death from all causes at the one-year mark.

In simple terms: when life sucks and the future seems bleak, people use drugs to feel better. If adults use drugs, the kids around them learn to cope the same way. If life begins to improve consistently, people are less likely to use drugs and more likely to take care of themselves in general.

You didn’t need a study to tell you any of that.

You put things in your body to feel different.

If you feel bad, you’ll keep trying to put things in your body until you feel good.

If you find something that’s good when nothing else is, you’ll want to use it more.

If you get a different reward that makes you feel good, you might prefer that one.

So, if you want to get people to not use drugs, reward them with alternatives. People follow incentives, not codes and rules.

It’s why reason Housing First is such an effective material intervention compared to incarceration or institutionalization. Let people be in safe and stable environments where they’re consistently rewarded for improved executive functioning. Leaving people in unsafe and unstable environments where they’re consistently denied opportunities to improve will not lead to improvement. Someone with housing can consistently access CM and other healthcare services, safely save up for their own rewards like improved clothing and social dinners, and avoid feeling like a social outcast in their daily lives which limits community engagement.

If we insist on viewing it in terms of capital, then investing in people’s health and housing is one of the best possible returns for a society. Recovery capital is an established framework for looking at the resources people have access to. Two of the biggest predictors of sustained abstinence for people in recovery is the increase in recovery capital while in treatment and the accessible recovery capital of their overall community. Increasing an individual’s coping and communication skills through education classes does comparatively little to changing the resources and community they can access. People quickly adapt to the environment they’re in. It’s one of the coolest things about humans as a species.

And for the politicians, I imagine a photo-op building housing would look better than clearing the encampments resulting from failed housing policies. Curing the disease sounds better than hiding the symptoms.

To Quote George Carlin

My personal recovery philosophy is a direct rip from George Carlin.

“Some of the people who had so much edgy promise, they died young. I mean, Lenny Bruce, Sam Kennison, Andy Kaufman in his way, Freddy Prince, John Belushi, Bill Hicks… it’s not always behavior, sometimes it’s just genetic, but I think there’s a degree of luck and intellect involved in giving up things that hurt you. The drug and alcohol thing it seems to me comes down to this: drugs and these things are wonderful. They’re wonderful when you try them first. They’re not around for all these millennia for no reason. First time, mostly plesaure, very little pain, maybe a hangover. And as you increase and keep using whatever it is, the pleasure part decreases and the pain part - the price you pay - increases until the balance is completely the other way and it’s almost all pain and there’s hardly any pleasure. At that point, you would hope the intellect says ‘Oh, oh this doesn’t work anymore. I’m going to die’ and I’ll do something.

“But you need people around you who can help you and you need something to live for. You have to have something to look forward to to bring you of it, you know. There are lot of people who don’t have a lot to live for and they’re sort of stuck.”*

That’s really what it comes down to in my opinion. Do you have people who care enough to help you see that you still have things to look forward to? It seems like we can go far on gift cards, a bed next to running water, and a regular thumbs-up from a social worker.

MankNotes

Explorer

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and Keepin' It REAL

Nothing Daring about DARE

Why Education is Doomed to Fail

To Quote George Carlin

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