The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program was created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1983 to teach children how to resist peer pressure to use illegal drugs. Twenty years later, DARE is the country’s most popular drug-education program; approximately 80 percent of the school districts in the United States include DARE in their curriculum.

DARE leaders and supporters believe that the program has many benefits. They assert that children who participate in DARE have an enhanced awareness of the dangers of illegal drugs. DARE also improves relations between students, parents, and police officers, they say. Advocates of DARE assert that the program shows children that they have a choice in how to live their lives. The police officers who lead the DARE program also teach children how to handle peer pressure and work to improve their...