5th grader under the influence of D.A.R.E turns his parents in.

After attending a D.A.R.E presentation on cannabis, an 11 yr. old 5th grader in Matthews, North Carolina brought his parent’s cannabis to school and turned them in to the police.

"Even if it's happening in their own home with their own parents, they understand that's a dangerous situation because of what we're teaching them," said Matthews Officer Stason Tyrrell. That's what they're told to do, to make us aware."

The student’s father and mother were arrested on October 14th. They were both charged with two misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. The 11 yr. old and a sibling were subsequently removed from their house by social services.

This sort of informing isn’t an isolated incident, nor is it discouraged. The D.A.R.E curriculum encourages children to confide in the police. “One of the first lessons found in DARE teaching materials stresses the "Three R's": "Recognize, Resist and Report." The official DARE Officer's Guide for Grades K-4 contains a worksheet that instructs children to "Circle the names of the people you could tell if . . . a friend finds some pills"; the "Police" are listed along with "Mother or Father," "Teacher” or "Friend." The next exercise instructs children to check boxes for which they should inform if they "are asked to keep a secret" - the police are again listed as an option.”

This isn’t a recent phenomenon either. “The Wall Street Journal reported in 1992 that "In two recent cases in Boston, children who had tipped police stepped out of their homes carrying DARE diplomas as police arrived to arrest their parents." In 1991, 10-year-old Joaquin Herrera of Englewood, Colo., phoned 911, announced, "I'm a DARE kid" and summoned police to his house to discover a couple of ounces of marijuana hidden in a bookshelf, according to the Rocky Mountain News. The boy sat outside his parents' home in a police patrol car while the police searched the home and arrested the parents. The policeman assigned to the boy's school commended the boy's action.”

The students find out that being arrested for drug possession doesn’t end with everyone wearing brightly colored-in smiles and holding black-pencil drawn hands under a scrawled yellow sun. “Nine-year-old Darrin Davis of Douglasville, Ga., called 911 after he found a small amount of speed hidden in his parent's bedroom because, as he told the Dallas Morning News, "At school, they told us that if we ever see drugs, call 911 because people who use drugs need help... I thought the police would come get the drugs and tell them that drugs are wrong. They never said they would arrest them... But in court, I heard them tell the judge that I wanted my mom and dad arrested. That is a lie. I did not tell them that." The arrest wrecked his parents' lives, said the Dallas newspaper; both parents lost their jobs, a bank threatened to foreclose on their homes and his father was kept in jail for three months.

If the police’s strategy in winning the war on drugs is to get children to turn their parents in, it’s best they should raise the white flag. Legalize consensual non-violent acts. Vote ‘yes’ on Prop. 19.

D.A.R.E. Officers Give Out Donuts to Get Kids to Talk to Them

D.A.R.E.'s International Training Conference is underway in Cincinnati, OH right now and D.A.R.E. officers from all over the country have figured out a healthy and non-ironic way to educate kids about the dangers of drugs: free donuts.

Seriously. That's the best they could come up with. Considering that poor diet and lack of exercise contribute to nearly 400,000 deaths each year, they couldn't have made a worse choice. Maybe if D.A.R.E. wasn't spending thousands of dollars each year on Mustangs and monster trucks with custom paint jobs to make kids think they're cool, they could have bought these kids some carrot sticks instead of giving out 1,000 sugar glazed artery cloggers donated by Dunkin' Donuts.

One police officer explained that giving out free donuts made children a lot less afraid of approaching police. "For people to approach you, it's a good thing because as police officers, that usually doesn't happen."

Why in the world would young people be cautious of talking to police officers? Police are the good guys right? They protect and serve and wage a war on drugs, so why is it unusual for them to be approached?

It might have something to do with things like this:

Feeding Your Children to Lions: The Only Way to Keep Them Off Drugs

Alright, alright. The title is a little misleading. But check this out - the D.A.R.E program of Brantford, Ontario requested $1,500 toward the $3,620 (U.S.) cost of a lion costume.

And look - they wanted to use this for 11-12 year olds. Are you kidding? If some asshole dressed as a lion came into my classroom when I was 12 years old to talk to me about the dangers of drugs - I'd probably want to do anything to not end up like him. And if that means using drugs - so be it. I'm not dressing up like a fucking lion for a living when my favorite rock stars and presidents have all admitted to trying drugs.

Luckily, the police services board realized this was a waste of money. "I like the idea of a real lion to scare the kids not to use drugs" joked one board member. Ahh yes, because drugs are more dangerous than putting your child in the same room as a lion - the king of the jungle.

Its true that the board did not approve funding for this yet and likely won't be doing so with the economy in the shape its in. But here is a concerning comment from the same board member that joked about using real lions:

"We don't want to send the message that we don't support D. A. R. E."

That comment likely means that had there not been a budget crisis at the moment this costume would have been approved. When is it ok to throw away money on stupid efforts that we know will not reduce drug use? We cannot base policies and funding on groups like D.A.R.E. simply because their intentions are good and we're afraid to send the message that we don't support them.

I'm all for reducing drug use/abuse among young people. But lions don't talk and they don't use drugs - so grow up and use your head when requesting to use thousands of tax payer dollars.

Or they could just get Stephen Seagal to teach kids about drugs and violence... The man that breaks people necks with the flick of his wrist.