Good riddance to DARE program

The June 7 Thousand Oaks Acorn editorial said thanks to Thousand Oaks for keeping DARE as long as it could.

While the editorial correctly identified DARE's problematic record, it made a concluding assertion that is factually incorrect: "While DARE wasn't a panacea, the city deserves credit for keeping it alive when no other program was available" (italics mine).

Actually there are other, proven effective programs such as Safety First (www.safety1st.org), which is a "reality based" approach using science and peerreviewed current thinking regarding drugs, kids and public policy.

DARE was an abysmal program with more than 18 different scientific peer-reviewed studies showing its ineffectiveness and its flawed ideology.

Its puzzling support was largely ideological in spite of the facts arrayed against it.

I'm relieved DARE is gone.

As a parent, I would much prefer Safety First as an eventual higher-effectiveness, lower cost replacement.

Thank you, Thousand Oaks, for ending a bad program. Christopher Page Thousand Oaks