A week after Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials suggested eliminating funding for Florida’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) training program, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is ending their local D.A.R.E. program, too.

PCSO was one of the last D.A.R.E. holdouts among local law enforcement agencies.

The FDLE wants to cut the $376,362 it spends on training D.A.R.E. officers from across the state as part of the second round of cutbacks requested by Governor Charlie Crist. FDLE’s D.A.R.E. program does not fund local programs, but the cuts would hinder local agencies’ abilities to afford training new officers.

PCSO has been one of the few law enforcement agencies to keep the anti-drug program for youth, even after the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and other Pinellas municipalities have eliminated the curriculum in public schools. In many cases, another anti-drug program, such as the Mendez Foundation’s Too Good For Drugs, has taken its place.

Now, with the county facing steep cuts, a PCSO spokeswoman says the program’s elimination is almost certain.

“Unfortunately, the program did become a casualty of budget cuts,” says PCSO’s Cecilia Barreda.

It’s about time.

For years, studies have proven that D.A.R.E. is ineffective and possibly even counterproductive at preventing drug use among teens. Even the federal government — through studies conducted by the U.S. Accountability Office, Department of Education and surgeon general — has agreed. After years of holding out, even after a state study proved the ineffectiveness of the program, the FDLE has finally acknowledged D.A.R.E.’s impotence.

Barreda says the PCSO will probably replace D.A.R.E. with another anti-drug program but it’s too early to tell which one.

This article appears in Aug 22-28, 2007.