Every month, the
Nation’s law enforcement
and emergency services
respond to 1000’s of calls
in response to overdoses
from opioids. By the time
we’re involved, far too
often permanent harm has
occurred, and too often
it’s too late for treatment
to save someone’s life.
Those reached in time
then struggle with a powerful
addiction, one that
many people never overcome.
What’s needed is
prevention to keep people
from misusing or abusing
these incredibly addictive
drugs in the first place.
This is especially important
for young people,
whose developing brains
make them susceptible to
lasting damage.
The tools already
exist to reduce this clear
threat to our community
and beyond. For the past
35 years, D.A.R.E. has
been taught in schools by
uniformed law enforcement
officers resulting in
the education of tens of
millions of elementary,
middle, and high school
students. Now D.A.R.E.’s
curricula include Opioid
and Prescription Drug
Abuse Prevention lessons—
so that we can stop
the crisis from taking hold
at the source: in schools
and homes.
Here in York
County, we’ve taught the
D.A.R.E. curricula for 32
years, reaching tens of
thousands of students.
Currently, two highly
trained officers deliver
D.A.R.E.’s prevention
education program.
Because opioid abuse
knows no boundaries, the
time is now for D.A.R.E.’s
prevention lessons to be
delivered statewide, particularly
since all of its
curricula are highly cost effective
and its new opioid
prevention lessons are
FREE to D.A.R.E. communities.
D.A.R.E.’s keepin’
it REAL elementary and
middle school curricula
were developed by the
Pennsylvania State
University and Arizona
State University, with the
assistance of the National
Institute on Drug Abuse.
D.A.R.E.’s high school
curriculum, myPlaybook,
was developed by
Prevention Strategies,
University of North
Carolina, Greensboro.
D.A.R.E. created
its new opioid and prescription
drug abuse prevention
lessons in
response to the current,
ongoing epidemic, which,
according to the U.S.
Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS),
results in seven deaths
every hour from opioid-related
drug overdoses,
amounting to 175 people
per day and cumulatively
more than 64,000 by the
end 2016. According to an
HHS study, substance
abuse prevention programs,
in addition to saving
lives, would save state
and local governments
$1.3 billion over two years
and an additional $33.5
billion in substance-abuse-related medical
care nationwide.
A great deal of
attention has been paid to
the hazards that children
in elementary, middle,
and high school classrooms
in York County,
throughout Virginia, and
across the country today
face, including bullying
and Internet safety, not to
mention the fear of school
violence. We may not be
able to prevent all of these
problems, but there’s no
reason not to do what’s
been shown to work to
prevent drug use, addiction
and related deaths.
Clearly, our community
for several years
has stepped up and recognized
the value D.A.R.E.
brings to our school children.
Now we need to
expand that commitment
to include teaching
D.A.R.E.’s new Opioid
and Prescription Drug
Abuse Prevention lessons
at not just the elementary
and middle school levels,
but also in our high
schools.
Today, every law
enforcement agency in
America is seeking ways
to build positive community
relations. Clearly,
while the issues and challenges
are complex, drug
use prevention education
should be a leading strategy.
D.A.R.E has incorporated
features in its education
programs to build
trust and create positive
relationships between law
enforcement, students
and their parents, helping
develop and reinforce
community-based prevention
and communityoriented
policing with
children and families.
It is time for all
students statewide and
beyond to receive
D.A.R.E. programming to
give them the decision-making
skills that will
equip them to lead safe
and healthy lives. The cost
of failing to do so will be
staggering. |