US state government and DARE: the story in four states

In: Evidence & policy: a journal of research, debate and practice, Band 2, Heft 3, S. 291-319

Abstract

English
In contrast to the widespread local popularity of the police-led Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) school-based programme, evaluation studies have consistently questioned its sustained impact on adolescent drug use. Our focus in this article is on the role of state government in DARE policy. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with 30 people, including past or present state agency officials and external researchers. These cases are organised chronologically along three time periods: (1) the genesis and expansion of DARE; (2) the resiliency of the programme to negative evaluation evidence; and (3) the decline of DARE.