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D.A.R.E. , a simple acronym with a big message. Drug Abuse Resistance Education. D.A.R.E.
teaches kids not just that they should refuse drugs and violence, but how to do so. The program was created in 1983 as a joint venture of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District. D.A.R.E. first came to Maine in 1987 when the Portland Police Department sent two of its Officers out to California for training. The Core Curriculum is designed for the fifth and sixth grades and sends a highly trained police officer into the classroom once a week for 17 weeks to teach students how to resist drugs and violence. The program follows a carefully structured curriculum, focusing on topics such as personal safety, drug use and misuse, consequences, resisting peer pressure, building self-esteem, Role Modeling using Drug Free High School students, alternatives support systems and much more. By getting the message from a street wise police officer, one who's been out there, one who knows first hand how drugs and violence can destroy lives and families - kids take that message seriously. D.A.R.E. goes beyond a one hour visit, once a week by a stranger, the D.A.R.E. Officer spends time eating lunch with the students and participating with the students during recess. D.A.R.E. is four and a half months of straight talk and conversation with someone who becomes a friend and an ally.D.A.R.E. began in the Wiscasset School System in 1989 through a combined effort of the Wiscasset Police Department and the Wiscasset School Department. Former Wiscasset Police Chief Michael Reidy began teaching the 17 week Core Curriculum to fifth and sixth graders at the Wiscasset Middle School.
In addition to the Core Curriculum D.A.R.E. has been taught to second grade students, eighth grade students, and High School students in Wiscasset.
Due to budget cuts the D.A.R.E. program is not currently be offered by the Wiscasset Police Department.
TIPS FOR PARENTS
· Establish family rules that make the use of drugs non-negotiable
· Educate yourself about drugs, so you can talk informatively with your children and answer their questions.
· Since peer pressure is a major factor in teen drug use, know your children's friends.
· Talk with other parents. Try to establish uniform rules that make access to drugs harder for your children and their friends, such as a curfew, the amount of spending money they receive, and their use of the car.
· If problems arise, try to seek advise and counsel from someone both you and your child respect and can relate to.
DARE DRUG
FACT SHEET
A DRUG
is any substance other than food that can affect the way your mind and body work. Certain drugs called mind-altering drugs can change the way a person thinks, feels, and acts.Drugs that speed a person up are called STIMULANTS.
Drugs that slow a person down are called DEPRESSANTS.
Drugs that change the ways a person sees, feels, and hears are called HALLUCINOGENS.
Mind-altering drugs that are abused by some young people are:
1. NICOTINE, a highly addictive (habit forming) substance found in cigarettes.
Nicotine is a STIMULANT which increases the heart rate, causes the blood vessels to narrow, and makes the heart work harder
Chewing tobacco also contains nicotine. It makes teeth loosen and causes gum disease, white patches in the mouth, and tooth decay.
Smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff not only give you bad breath, smelly hands, and stained teeth, but can also cause cancer, heart disease, and death. In fact cigarette smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the United States. The number of people who die each day from the effects of smoking is the same as if two full jumbo jets were to crash every day.
Even breathing in someone else's smoke can be dangerous to your health. This is called PASSIVE smoke. Passive smoke pollutes the air.
2. ALCOHOL is a DEPRESSANT drug. When a person drinks
alcohol, it is
absorbed directly into the bloodstream from the stomach and intestines.
Drinking alcohol can cause:
Drunkenness.
Loss of coordination (balance).
Increase in violence (destructive acts)
Inability to learn and remember.
Changes in personality.
Increase in accidents.
Trouble with other people.
Use of alcohol can lead to drug dependency, or addiction (habit-forming), disease, and death. Because of the risks and dangers involved in using alcohol (especially for young people), it is illegal for people under the age of twenty-one to drink.
3. MARIJUANA is a mind-altering drug. Marijuana
has many slang names. Some of them are "pot," "weed,"
"grass," and "reefers." Someone who uses marijuana has:
Slow reflexes.
Poor memory.
Short attention span.
Inability to think.
Changes in sense of time and space.
Students who use marijuana may have difficulty remembering what they have learned, are slow, are dull, have little ambition, and may become dependent on the drug.
4. COCAINE is a highly addictive stimulant. It is usually snorted through the nose but can also be smoked in the form of "crack" or "rock." It can also be injected.
When used on a regular basis, cocaine causes a person to become confused, unable to think clearly, and short-tempered. When snorted, it may also cause damage to the lining of the nose. Cocaine use has even caused breathing problems, heart attacks, and death in young people. When people use drugs over a period of time, they may develop TOLERANCE, which means they need to use more and more of the drug to feel its desired effects.
When addicted people can't get their drugs, they experience WITHDRAWAL ILLNESS. These users become very sick.
5. An INHALANT is a chemical, such as glue, gasoline, or about 2,000 other dangerous chemicals, which is used for sniffing, or "huffing," to get high. Abusing any chemical as an inhalant can be habit-forming, can cause serious, permanent damage to your liver and other parts of your body, and can even cause death on the first try.
All of the drugs discussed here are dangerous substances that can negatively affect your health, your schoolwork, your family, and your friendships. They may limit your choices for the rest of your life.
Please visit the official D.A.R.E home page