The graduation ceremony began with a brief introduction by the school principal and the police officer who has led the program at the school for many years. After their brief talks, they introduced four students who would be presenting their essays describing what they had learned and how the D.A.R.E. program would impact them in the future. To hear these fifth graders stand up in front of all of their family and friends and explain the dangers of drugs and alcohol abuse and proclaim to all that they wanted to protect their body and their plans for the future by abstaining from use and abuse was inspiring and troubling at the same time.

These kids were logically applying the facts and dangers of the use of drugs to their life and had recognized that use and abuse were not conducive to their plans to be successful, productive and happy in life. As a senior graduating this May, I had to ask myself, when does this emphatic denunciation of drugs and alcohol no longer mark an individual of promise but rather a “goody two shoes” or a “suck up”?

In my experience, drinking became “cool” around the seventh grade and has continued through my years at MSU. People who shook their head at drinking and the occasional unprescribed Xanax were sometimes respected, but generally seen as anti-social or even arrogant. While all social circles are different, many engage in what is technically considered alcohol abuse or binge drinking. The use of drugs as a stress reliever on the weekends or once in a while becomes more accepted as we enter our college years. Looking around that room of fifth graders, I knew in my heart, even though they had all pledged not to use drugs, tobacco, or abuse alcohol, many of them would break that promise in the next 5 years. Does this fact render the D.A.R.E. program a failure?

We have provided a curriculum and set time period where our students learn the dangers and hear the stories of people who have experienced many less than desirable outcomes from the use of drugs and alcohol. If kids still are using, have we failed? I searched for specific evidence citing the obvious statistical benefits of the D.A.R.E. program such as declining rates of drug and alcohol use in teens from 1983, when the D.A.R.E. program started in Los Angeles, through today. The illegal use of alcohol by high school seniors has decreased, as has binge drinking. While rates of use for marijuana and cigarettes have also declined since the 1970s, the recreational use of prescription medications such as Xanax and Vicodin has become an additional problem. With the explosion of the Internet and social media, school administrators now deal with the consequences of cyber bullying and the texting of inappropriate pictures among minors. The D.A.R.E. curriculum has expanded to meet the need for teen and preteen education in these areas and is helping to protect against the risks for negative behavior in a world of rapidly improving technology and social media.

Looking back on the D.A.R.E. program, it was much easier to proclaim as a fifth grader that I would never abuse alcohol or use tobacco or drugs. There was pressure, but nothing like one encounters in high school and college. What’s the point of D.A.R.E. if the circumstances change as soon as students leave the classroom and embark on an ever-changing world? With D.A.R.E. as a fixture in 75 percent of school districts in the United States, students are hearing the message. They are hearing the facts that drugs and alcohol can seriously derail your plans to be a successful athlete, doctor, teacher, lawyer, or businessperson. They can impair your chances of a happy family life or simply being happy with the person you are.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse cites that teens whose parents regularly talk to them about the dangers of drugs and alcohol are 42 percent less likely to use them, yet they also found that less than 25 percent of teens are having these talks with their parents. In addition to the necessity of parent involvement in such matters, D.A.R.E. provides a place for kids to hear these messages before the pressures become even more serious. No program is perfect, but one structured around the importance of instilling knowledge and self-confidence in our students provides them with a greater chance of saying no to these dangerous substances, not once, not twice, but over and over again.

Victoria Merritt is a State News guest columnist and political theory and constitutional democracy senior. Reach her at merrittv@msu.edu.