The police-taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program had been the focus of controversy for its lack of effectiveness in keeping kids away from drugs. But a study by the University of Minnesota shows that the new D.A.R.E. Plus, which involves teachers and students, is meeting with some success.

For the study, researchers compared the D.A.R.E. and D.A.R.E. Plus programs given to 6,237 7th-graders in 24 schools in 1999 and 2000. One third of the schools used the original D.A.R.E. curriculum, one third used the enhanced D.A.R.E. Plus, and the remaining schools used no drug-prevention programs.

The results showed no difference in the use of tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana between students given the original D.A.R.E. and those receiving no program at all. However, with the D.A.R.E. Plus program, researchers found that boys were less likely than those who received no training to show increases in alcohol and other drug use.

In addition, girls in the D.A.R.E. Plus program were less likely to report ever being drunk compared to girls who took part in the original D.A.R.E. program.

"In summary, the D.A.R.E. Plus Project demonstrated that a multi-component intervention significantly improved the D.A.R.E. middle- and junior-high school D.A.R.E. curriculum and became an effective intervention for reducing increases in alcohol, tobacco, and multi-grid use and victimization among adolescent boys," the study said.

The study's findings are published in the February 2003 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

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