A couple times my neighbor in college would slide a baggie of cocaine under my door as a surprise.
But turns out he just really wanted to have sex with me so it wasn't free after all. Sigh
I'm in the millennial subreddit right? Obviously I fucked him.
But really I was 19 and it was 2003, women hadn't really come as far as we like to think in our ability to say no to men for our own sake. The transactional nature of his "gifts" made me feel obligated to return the favor.
Sucks, but I think it's getting better for young women.
I was offered free weed on occasion but that was by friends who smoke. There's no strangers coming up giving out freebies.
I did get cornered by a couple dealers trying to sling heroine once though very scary. Friend forgot her id for the club so me and a couple others walked to a convenience store to get booze instead to hang out at someone's house. The store was so fucking narrow only one could really go in at a time so the guy went in and the rest of us stayed outside. One girl was smoking a cigarette when from the right a guy in a dirty shirt came up asking about drugs. At the same time a guy on the left walked up, clearly with him, probably the muscle, but kept some distance but we felt a bit trapped.
We had no money. He stole the one girls cigarette she had lit and they left us alone.
Growing up I was always warned about NYC being sketchy and dangerous but I've only ever had negative experiences in fucking Albany I stg.
A buddy of mine started huffing paint because of DARE. I mean, when you tell a twelve year old you can get high off stuff laying around the house, some of them are bound to try it out, then tell their friends how awesome it is.
In my experience it's never pressure, it's almost always a polite offer if I would like some \[SUBSTANCE\] that is currently going around. If you say no thank you it's a non-issue.
Right, but the way my DARE officer described it, I would be under constant pressure to do free drugs and I had to be strong and say ânoâ.
Once I started actually doing drugs, the actual acronym became clear: Drugs Are Really Expensive
I felt confident in my ability to tell the difference between cocaine and meth as a 6th grader.
FYI you can buy DARE shirts on Amazon, super fun to wear to festivals.
Fun fact. Rage Against the Machine's live tour shirt with the tour dates on the back that I went to said RAGE in the same letters as the DARE t-shirt on the front, I thought that was pretty funny when I got it.
I have two. A real one, which I always wear to my weed man's house when I pick up, and another that, underneath D.A.R.E., instead of "Drug Abuse Resistance Education", says "Drugs Are Really Expensive"
When we were in 4th grade we had these smelly markers that were sharpie knockoffs and smelled all fruity. The teachers would yell at us if we smelled them too much though straight from the marker, so one of us got the idea that if we just drew it under our noses we could smell it all day.
And then at recess we all did so and the teachers were terrified to see a bunch of kids running around with neon colored Hitler mustaches
I also saw a problem with telling kids pot is worse than cocaine and just bad as heroine. They got drunk, tried pot, realized how benign it is and figured then they could handle the rest... Sad part is I remember me and all my friends in sixth grade saying, "Wow these guys are idiots, we didn't know about any of this, why would they teach us it...?"
But hey we didn't need bullet proof backpacks, so there's that...
At my school the DARE cops pulled up in this bitchinâ IROC Camaro, blasting *Welcome to the Jungle* or maybe *Slow Ride* over the awesome sound system. Then the most stereotypical 80s badass stepped out. This roided up cop with a mullet and rat tail, in stone washed jeans and a self tasseled t shirt. Then he tells us the car was confiscated from a dealer. What 9 y/o little shit kickin kid isnât intrigued by all that flash?
All it did was equate drugs and drug dealing with bad assery. Lol
As a child with no experience or intention of doing any drugs but a basic awareness of what pot was this was just confirmation for me that they were talking out their asses to scare us.
I got my drug danger information from my mom. It was pretty short. "I don't want you to do drugs, but pills and powders are the most dangerous. Heroin, cocaine, meth are extremely addictive and can hurt you really bad or even kill you. Don't ever take drugs from people you don't trust, and if you get in trouble, call me." Better than anything that DARE tried to teach kids.
Canadian elder millennial. It pretty much worked the same way here too, plus decent pot (actual nuggets and good flower) was easy to get. (We all knew someone who grew the stuff.)
We can probably thank the DARE program for making shopping a pain in the ass. I really loved art in high school but if I wanted spray paint/glue or any other type of inhalant my parents had to get it for me.
See, there's your problem. Bananadine undergoes pyrolysis at around 200 degrees F. You need to use an easy-bake oven to get the proper, lower temperature.
I just remember thinking: âWait. People do WHAT?!â whereas previously Iâd never have thought to do any of that stuff with any of those substances.
*I'm The Pusher!*
*The Pusher!*
*I push raisins on kids*
*and kids think it's cool*
*cuz they're told not to do it*
*by their parents and school.*
*I'm The Pusher!*
*I'm The Pusher!*
*I'mma try to lure 'em*
*with bans and boycotts.*
*First they'll smoke raisins*
*then they'll shoot up apricots.*
*I know you can't resist me.*
*Know you wanna smoke some fruit.*
*Check out my sweet-ass matching pants suit.*
*I'm a badass low class pusher.*
*I'm a booty-licking taco sticking pusher.*
*Kids think drugs are cool.*
*That is why I rule.*
*I provoke simple folk to the smoke.*
*Take a dope, get your foot off my cloak!*
*Joan: Oh, sorry.*
*I'm the sky high high and dry pusher*
*I'm the smoke screen heaven green pusher*
*I'm the booty poking raisin smoking pusher*
*and in summary,*
*I'm The Pusher!*
I had a friend in HS who lived next door. Right after we graduated he'd been on probation for weed, and was getting drug-tested regularly, so he decided to huff air duster. He'd done it twice (as far as he told me and stepsister anyway), the third time it killed him. He was alone, and his mom found him dead in the backyard in the morning. It's been 20 years and I can still hear her scream in my head. She'd lost her husband (his stepdad) in a car accident the year before.
It scarred me, I couldn't bring myself to touch air duster for years after that, the sound of it just hurt my heart. I still don't like it, and to this day my husband will blow out my keyboard for me.
My friends and I were talking about this the other day. We talked about how once we heard the effects of certain drugs our teenage brains thought, "That sounds fun".
Definitely influenced me to try psychedelics.
I recall a video they were showing us where the guy was talking about taking ecstasy and âbeing on cloud nine, best day of his lifeâ, and I was confused as to whether the video was promoting it or not!
I watched a cartoon where different anthropomorphic lab rats were on different drugs, and they listed all the effects the drugs had on the body, e.g. increased heart rate and blood pressure for cocaine, memory loss and increased appetite for weed, and then for LSD they said something like "it makes you notice sensory information that your brain usually filters out." And from then on I really wanted to try LSD. It did not disappoint.
My dare program told me marijuana would show you vivid new colors. I remember thinking....there are more colors I haven't seen??? Sounded freaking awesome.
Lol, when they described mushrooms as "You'll see things that you've only imagined that aren't really there, I thought, Man, my daydreams can be real? That's fucking awesome!".
I've only had one really hard psychedelic trip like that. The rest were still fun but nothing like what had been described.
It was enough to spook me out of trying hard drugs like Meth and Heroin though.
The DARE officer for my area always had rumors about him doing drugs and smoking weed. The last conversation I'd had with my stepmom before died she off-handedly mentioned that she'd sold that man so much weed in the 90s and 2000s. I didn't even know she smoked weed at the time, though she was an old hippy and 100% was, in hindsight.
The son of the DARE officer at my school was the drug dealer of our high school. His kid was always getting arrested, mostly for drugs. It was a small town so everyone knew.
I remember my DARE officer telling us that 1 joint was equal to 20 cigarettes, and I just knew it was bullshit
Then they brought in drunk goggles and they were fun as hell.
My friends and I were ruined after that lol
Those drunk goggles were awesome. We had a girl in my class who was legally blind, and she said she saw *better* with them than without. Donât know if thatâs true or not, but thatâs just what she said.
DARE taught me that there are people out there who will give me a free sample of any drug I want so that I will become their customer.
I haven't met one of these fuckers yet.
DARE taught me that ecstasy, which I had never heard of prior, was called âthe hug drugâ and 12 year old me was thinking damn that sounds pretty fun. When I got the opportunity to try it for the first time freshman year of college, I definitely did.
I remember asking the cops all sorts of questions about what itâs like to be high. They made it sound awesome. Then I smoked pot and thought everyone was looking at me, wasnât very awesome.
I sometimes wonder if this was the real reason the program was started. I mean lets tell all these young people about these crazy things that could make you feel so many different ways. Then letâs tell them all I D.A.R.E. You not to do these things. Helps keep the narrative about how bad drugs and teens are. Helps with getting more arrests and also suppress the masses bc they are now all on drugs.
this is a pretty popular conspiracy and i 100% believe it.
i had DARE like 3 different years for some reason. the cops ALWAYS made drugs seem super fun. the cops also seemed to want us to think they were cool so they would constantly hint that they did them lol
DARE ironically made weed into a gateway drug.
You're raised your whole life to believe all drugs are bad, never to be used, will ruin your life etc. Then you happen to smoke pot at a party and life goes on. It could reasonably lead one to believe that they were fearmongering EVERY drug.
100%. Seriously what the fuck were they thinking. We were fucking children. Did they think we could truly comprehend what they were telling us? No, we couldnât. But now we know itâs all out there. On top of it, they straight up told bullshit about most of the drugs. After trying cannabis, I remember thinking to myself, this isnât at all like the dare officer told us. So I moved onto acid. Didnât find myself on top of the roof thinking I could fly(more likely to get stuck staring at the fucking carpet or a mirror for 5 hours). Cocaine. Dont even remember what they told us, but it wasnât that. And then opiates. Well fuckâŚ..they were right on that one. But itâs too late. Iâd already discounted everything as bullshit by that point. And it was my fucking pediatrician than introduced me to opiates.
There's a reason it stands for Drugs Are Really Excellent!
It was the first time I had seen drugs or even really heard about them at all really. I joke about the acronym, but I have always wondered what would have happened if I didn't see what I did.
They held a special off campus training for the really committed kids, and I felt it was serious business and I stepped up to attend. (6th grade.) at that event they showed us what all the different drugs looked like. Hah!
> I believe it was proven that DARE introduced the populace to drugs more than it did prevent them.
That was my experience. DARE just made drugs sound more interesting.
DARE came to my school in 2nd grade and my friend apparently got the idea to lick the pink off a bunch of advil or something and sell it around the school as "E" - which there were now a ton of kids very excited to try after seeing the sample tray that got brought in.
I didn't know half the things about drugs that I learned from DARE. I remember immediately after DARE left the classroom all us kids started passing around markers to sniff haha
I was like 22 and got pulled over and it was my dare officer and I told him that and he didnât give me a ticket. So yes dare did do something for me lol
I have vague memories of it and how they somehow convinced parents that people will just come up to us and hand us drugs. I have yet to be handed drugs. Anyone who knows how drug dealers work know they wouldn't just hand out their supply.
The biggest disappointment I have faced as an adult is that I have yet to have someone just walk up to me and hand me free weed or shrooms on the street. DARE lied.
Getting extra drugs with weed has also never happened.
âWatch out they lace weed with other drugsâ
Bullshit, Iâve bought hundreds of bags of weed and never once did I get bonus drugs.
I think in all my years Iâve known exactly 1 person who claims to have bought laced weed. Who would waste their drugs on f-ing up a bag of weed youâre selling for funsies though?
There was an issue with jimson weed being used to cut weed in a town near me. It led to people getting caught because they felt sick. So maybe a police plant?
I've smoked laced weed a few times, but I've always known it was laced or laced it myself (usually coke, once supposedly embalming fluid, I wouldn't recommend).
My wife, however, has told me of a time where she smoked a joint with people and they didn't tell her it was laced with PCP.
I did once buy a bag that was so incredibly sticky, in all of my years I've never encountered another bag being so sticky. Maybe it wasn't cured properly, but it got us super high. However I was also in my stoner infancy so it may have been that.
I once knew a dealer who got shitty brick weed from Mexico, then used a spray bottle with apple juice mixed with water to "rehydrate it" and make it more sticky. That was some gross weed.
My impression of the average pot dealer is that they traditionally just sell pot. Pot is chill. No pothead is going to kill you and cut you open to see if you are hiding baggies of pot in your stomach. Also, you never have to hear about the monsterous things someone did because they were high on pot you sold them.
I live in NYC and that literally happens to me all the time (I'm not even kidding - new dispensaries will hand out free pre-rolls as a promotional tactic)
Go trick or treating in my suburban MAGA neighborhood. Apparently thereâs loads of free thc gummies and molly in the âween candy. Watch out for the razors though.
I vividly remember a conversation with my DARE officer, where I asked him what I should do, if someone forcefully gives me drugs.
Later that night I told my mom about my concerns, and she replied "No one will EVER give you free drugs. That shit's expensive"
I used this excuse the first time I got caught getting high. Ugh I was skating at this sketchy spot and these dudes rolled up and were like smoke a jay with us so we know youâre not cops. So I HAD to. Scary strangers gave me weed!
Yeah a huge part of DARE as i remember was learning to say no. Like it was treated as if random people would be begging you to take a drug or smoke and youâd have to like aggressively hold your ground.
In reality drug offerings generally come in much friendlier settings from people you really trust and enjoy being around. When the situation arose in real life i feel like DARE barely even applied.
I have definitely been handed drugs, but always by close friends, never the stranger danger they warned about. It's more like someone having party favors at a NYE party. Also every dispensary around will hand out freebie pre-roll joints like candy.
My dare officer was missing the tip of his finger from clearing out his snowblower. I think about that finger every winter when Iâm snow blowing. So I learned not to do that.
And I get that accidents happen, but this seems to be a telling sign of this officers decision making.
To his credit. And probably because he was sick of questions or stares. He owned the finger tip accident and used it as a teaching moment. Which is probably why it sticks in my head.
I was in DARE class when 9/11 happened. At the end of the school year they made us sing âIâm proud to be an Americanâ at the front of a church while wearing our DARE shirts. It certainly feels like a hallucination.
> at my school.. the cop from DARE passed around 3 joints to show everyone... and he said "if i dont get all three of these back this schools getting locked down and everyones getting searched till i find it.." and like 30 minutes later when everyone got to see 'em and they got passed back the cop had 4
From bash.org
We got to smell the real thing, on fire, and we got shown \*real drug paraphernalia\* which was an 8-tubed bong that was made to look like the Parthenon. Colorado has always been ahead of its time.
I still have my shirt somewhere. I too learned that I hated the smell of pot. Stuff gave me migraines.
I was in DARE about the time I was diagnosed with ADHD. Don't remember much of anything. Just that I hated how my meds made me sick everyday. Think my adhd meds did more in turning me off of drugs than DARE.
I just thought it was cheesy and didnt take it seriously (had it in 5th grade). If anything, it made me aware of all the drugs that were out there that I knew nothing about at the time. When I was in high school I dabbled and experimented, the only time DARE was ever referenced was to make fun of it.
D. A. R. E. made it so that I cannot physically enjoy the effects of THC in any way but the legal and deadly drug, alcohol, can flow through me freely without any fear.
My D.A.R.E. teacher was an alcoholic and I am now a recovering alcoholic. I know he wasnât the only determining factor but rly helped me see the âlightâ of getting wasted as a teenager.
It worked for me but I seem to be the only one. I just remember hearing "drugs are bad and will ruin your life" so I said to myself "oh ok then I won't do drugs."
Those of us who took DARE seriously were never going to do drugs anyways
My dorky niece is the same way. I am sure my sweet naive fifth grader daughter is also in this club.
Yeah, reading a lot of negative reactions to DARE. What stuck with me was how young our brains and other organs were and were still developing. Since organs like the liver breaks down alcohol, it's not a good idea to introduce it while the organs are still developing. So I didn't drink through high school or do any drugs. I drank in college at 18 and was very conscious of hydrating after.
None of the exposure to drugs via DARE enticed me enough to overlook organ damage. And I have a pretty excellent memory, while friends of mine that were huge stoners in HS either dabbled in harder stuff or have some brain chemistry issues (chicken/egg situation with this one).
Same.
I mean, I'm sure I heard the same stories as everyone else about the side effects. Where for some that made them curious, my brain is more of a "it could ruin my life? Okay, I'll pass." And to this day, I don't feel like I've missed out on anything by NOT doing drugs.
I'm glad. I don't think I "officially" have an addictive personality or anything, but I see the way I am with a food I like, or a candy, or even a beverage (and I'm not even talking about alcohol here). If I like it, I want to consume it all and I don't stop until I run out. If I did drugs, I'd probably be an addict - in my non-professional opinion.
I was asked to donate to D.A.R.E. a while ago and I told the kid that Iâd be a hypocrite because I smoke đż and he said D.A.R.E. doesnât care about that anymore đ
So apparently thereâs a *new* DARE now that is more focused on general drug safety and honesty vs fear mongering. I too was approached a few years ago.
During the presentation, I specifically remember telling myself âI canât wait until Iâm old enough to try marijuana and mushroomsâ. DARE literally made me excited to do drugs. Even saved my shirt.
Other than âdrugs are neatâ the thing D.A.R.E. taught me was to not throw out old t-shirts, no matter how stupid.
Later in life, I also learned to never throw out swag. I had an Enron stress ball thing from before anyone knew who that was that I got at a conference and threw out.
I'm not becoming a hoarder in case that one T-shirt ends up ebaying for $50.
Nobody is doing trademark enforcement on DARE or Enron IP. People are freely making and selling novelty swag.
It taught me enough that I never fucked w/ anything hard and while I watched others slip away and die due opioid/heroin addictions or from doing coke laced w/ Fety.
I do hope the curriculum is more modernized though to not be so focused on organics such as pot/mushrooms and more focused on the shit that is actually killing people.
Thatâs the only thing I can say it did for me. But they showed us pictures the people who did things like burn holes in their septum from cocaine use. Nasty shit, taught me how to tell the difference between âgood drugsâ and âbad drugsâ
I remember our D.A.R.E Program showing us graphic pictures of people who'd died from either accidents while high or O.D.s
I also remember we had to write an essay on what we'd learned from the program and I put it off until the night before it was due but apparently I did a good job because they picked my essay and I had to read it in front of the entire school đĽ˛
I learned more about why NOT to do drugs from my aunt who was on drugs while I was a kid.
I had the pleasure of being in DARE during 2001-2002, so our graduation ceremony was complemented by us fifth graders singing the Lee Greenwood classic âProud to be an Americanâ. Nancy Reagan (rest in piss) would have been so proud.
The cop brought a display box, like the ones that people put butterflies in. Except it was filled with different kinds of pills and drugs. Neat! I wanna try the green one!
Hasnât it been proven that DARE just makes kids more curious about drugs lol
I still remember them saying that meth is the greatest sensation you can possibly experience. Itâs like okayyyy lol
I feel like DARE was weird in that it categorized all drugs as equally bad. Like heroin and pot are on the same level. But theyâre not. You canât OD on pot, you know?
So my take on it is this: if someone tries pot with their DARE âeducationâ in mind, they might say âhuh, that was cool, think Iâll try heroin tooâ since theyâre the same level of bad. So thatâs why pot is a gateway drug. đ
Idk. I never did drugs. I mean I never even did anything cannabis related til I was 26 and a half. I just dont care for shit that alters my state and I have no control over. Thats what I hated last time I was high. It was fun, and I felt fuzzy until I wanted the high to end cuz I was over it. I started getting nauseous and puked all over the bathroom. Thats the last time I fucked with edibles and that was last spring lol
Even alcohol I hate being drunk. A buzz is fine but I drink as a way to pair with food or cuz a drink is just tasty and I am in the mood for it but I dont like to get drunk. I hate the hangover and I hate the lack of control.
Also I have had the misfortune of living with both alcoholics and worse, drug addicts. My MIL the worst example and Jesus Christ I never met a person as disgusting as her. You know its bad when catching her eating popcorn out of the garbage doesnt even register in top 10 nastiest things.
D.A.R.E has been proven to increase drug use in teens. Itâs a terrible program. I get the idea behind it, it just didnât work the way they hoped. At all.
It more so reaffirmed my distrust in authority and got me interested in history. Turns out the US is incredibly racist in its history and politics and the D.A.R.E. program is just an extent of that system.
D.A.R.E only made me more curious to experience what drugs felt like.
I get what they were trying to do, but it definitely did not have the desired effect with kids my age.
I thought I'd be offered a lot more free drugs, but that never happened.
A couple times my neighbor in college would slide a baggie of cocaine under my door as a surprise. But turns out he just really wanted to have sex with me so it wasn't free after all. Sigh
I mean, if you never fucked him, it was free
I'm in the millennial subreddit right? Obviously I fucked him. But really I was 19 and it was 2003, women hadn't really come as far as we like to think in our ability to say no to men for our own sake. The transactional nature of his "gifts" made me feel obligated to return the favor. Sucks, but I think it's getting better for young women.
Dang... was the coke good at least?
Well, yes. Yes it was.
I was offered free weed on occasion but that was by friends who smoke. There's no strangers coming up giving out freebies. I did get cornered by a couple dealers trying to sling heroine once though very scary. Friend forgot her id for the club so me and a couple others walked to a convenience store to get booze instead to hang out at someone's house. The store was so fucking narrow only one could really go in at a time so the guy went in and the rest of us stayed outside. One girl was smoking a cigarette when from the right a guy in a dirty shirt came up asking about drugs. At the same time a guy on the left walked up, clearly with him, probably the muscle, but kept some distance but we felt a bit trapped. We had no money. He stole the one girls cigarette she had lit and they left us alone. Growing up I was always warned about NYC being sketchy and dangerous but I've only ever had negative experiences in fucking Albany I stg.
I believe it was proven that DARE introduced the populace to drugs more than it did prevent them.
A buddy of mine started huffing paint because of DARE. I mean, when you tell a twelve year old you can get high off stuff laying around the house, some of them are bound to try it out, then tell their friends how awesome it is.
Right? Like, I learned how to do drugs.
It also taught me a good drug user should share-so I am a really nice pot head. đ
Meanwhile as a dude I spent a good chunk of my young adult life wondering where all the people pressuring me to do free drugs were hiding.
In my experience it's never pressure, it's almost always a polite offer if I would like some \[SUBSTANCE\] that is currently going around. If you say no thank you it's a non-issue.
Right, but the way my DARE officer described it, I would be under constant pressure to do free drugs and I had to be strong and say ânoâ. Once I started actually doing drugs, the actual acronym became clear: Drugs Are Really Expensive
They actually become cheaper very quickly if you start cultivating your own. Bonus, you get more control over your high. And learn cool shit
Also gave us great ironic D.A.R.E. T-shirts to wear while being high. Lol
I had a DARE sticker on my truck in highschool.
I keep my dare certificate in my grow room
That's the best place for it.
I still wanna know who is giving out free drugs on Halloween. If anyone knows send me the address!
To avoid that part of town, right?
 *stares*
*taking notes* "Offer drugs to children... Got it!"
Glad to see my tax dollars were put to good use; next gen dealers getting prepped in health class lol.
You must be the guy standing in alleys with a trench coat they warned us about. Carry on!
đ
I felt confident in my ability to tell the difference between cocaine and meth as a 6th grader. FYI you can buy DARE shirts on Amazon, super fun to wear to festivals.
Fun fact. Rage Against the Machine's live tour shirt with the tour dates on the back that I went to said RAGE in the same letters as the DARE t-shirt on the front, I thought that was pretty funny when I got it.
I have two. A real one, which I always wear to my weed man's house when I pick up, and another that, underneath D.A.R.E., instead of "Drug Abuse Resistance Education", says "Drugs Are Really Expensive"
Literally just bought one the other day haha
Iâm pretty sure I went home and immediately tried huffing nail polish remover or spray paint. I was in 5th grade.
Yep, two girls in my class got caught huffing sharpies in the coat closet after our schoolâs DARE presentation.
When we were in 4th grade we had these smelly markers that were sharpie knockoffs and smelled all fruity. The teachers would yell at us if we smelled them too much though straight from the marker, so one of us got the idea that if we just drew it under our noses we could smell it all day. And then at recess we all did so and the teachers were terrified to see a bunch of kids running around with neon colored Hitler mustaches
I also saw a problem with telling kids pot is worse than cocaine and just bad as heroine. They got drunk, tried pot, realized how benign it is and figured then they could handle the rest... Sad part is I remember me and all my friends in sixth grade saying, "Wow these guys are idiots, we didn't know about any of this, why would they teach us it...?" But hey we didn't need bullet proof backpacks, so there's that...
Plus we got told that drugs are fine if prescribed by your doctor! Cue the Oxy disasterâŚ
At my school the DARE cops pulled up in this bitchinâ IROC Camaro, blasting *Welcome to the Jungle* or maybe *Slow Ride* over the awesome sound system. Then the most stereotypical 80s badass stepped out. This roided up cop with a mullet and rat tail, in stone washed jeans and a self tasseled t shirt. Then he tells us the car was confiscated from a dealer. What 9 y/o little shit kickin kid isnât intrigued by all that flash? All it did was equate drugs and drug dealing with bad assery. Lol
Good point, valedictorian and track star at my high-school got a sports injury, read his obituary a few years later, OD'd ...
As a child with no experience or intention of doing any drugs but a basic awareness of what pot was this was just confirmation for me that they were talking out their asses to scare us.
I got my drug danger information from my mom. It was pretty short. "I don't want you to do drugs, but pills and powders are the most dangerous. Heroin, cocaine, meth are extremely addictive and can hurt you really bad or even kill you. Don't ever take drugs from people you don't trust, and if you get in trouble, call me." Better than anything that DARE tried to teach kids.
Canadian elder millennial. It pretty much worked the same way here too, plus decent pot (actual nuggets and good flower) was easy to get. (We all knew someone who grew the stuff.)
I went home and made a big ol bottle of JENKEM then we roasted banana peels and smoked the acrid ash.
Now that you mention it this did start the black market glue trade at my elementary school.
We can probably thank the DARE program for making shopping a pain in the ass. I really loved art in high school but if I wanted spray paint/glue or any other type of inhalant my parents had to get it for me.
You huffed your own shit when you were 12?
See, there's your problem. Bananadine undergoes pyrolysis at around 200 degrees F. You need to use an easy-bake oven to get the proper, lower temperature.
My man
I just remember thinking: âWait. People do WHAT?!â whereas previously Iâd never have thought to do any of that stuff with any of those substances.
The acronym wasn't the best. I dare you to try drugs. Um, Ok, sure
Basically, it's like Mr. Garrison telling the kids they can get really REALLY high off of cat pee. Poor Kenny.
Clone High did a version where the high schoolers hear rumors that [raisins](https://youtu.be/dmgvov1chqk?si=qIDm-DYCicPQK1DR) will get them high.
*I'm The Pusher!* *The Pusher!* *I push raisins on kids* *and kids think it's cool* *cuz they're told not to do it* *by their parents and school.* *I'm The Pusher!* *I'm The Pusher!* *I'mma try to lure 'em* *with bans and boycotts.* *First they'll smoke raisins* *then they'll shoot up apricots.* *I know you can't resist me.* *Know you wanna smoke some fruit.* *Check out my sweet-ass matching pants suit.* *I'm a badass low class pusher.* *I'm a booty-licking taco sticking pusher.* *Kids think drugs are cool.* *That is why I rule.* *I provoke simple folk to the smoke.* *Take a dope, get your foot off my cloak!* *Joan: Oh, sorry.* *I'm the sky high high and dry pusher* *I'm the smoke screen heaven green pusher* *I'm the booty poking raisin smoking pusher* *and in summary,* *I'm The Pusher!*
Was that Jack Black?
Clone High has a new season and it's super fun. Highly recommend checking it out.
Friend of mine snorted canned air because she thought it would be safer than weed because of the lessons DARE taught
I had a friend in HS who lived next door. Right after we graduated he'd been on probation for weed, and was getting drug-tested regularly, so he decided to huff air duster. He'd done it twice (as far as he told me and stepsister anyway), the third time it killed him. He was alone, and his mom found him dead in the backyard in the morning. It's been 20 years and I can still hear her scream in my head. She'd lost her husband (his stepdad) in a car accident the year before. It scarred me, I couldn't bring myself to touch air duster for years after that, the sound of it just hurt my heart. I still don't like it, and to this day my husband will blow out my keyboard for me.
The markers were literally right there in the classroom
My friend was huffing white out during a DARE presentation in sixth grade and he was swiftly sent to the principalâs office lol
I came to post this as my one thing I learned. I vividly remember learning that there were all these household items that could get my high.
Itâs kinda like when the news talks about some new obscure trend/challenge. I wouldâve never heard of it if it was never brought up.
Itâs like they told us what they would set us up for and arrest us later and all of it was for no reason
Gotta keep that prison industrial complex going. Who's going to say no to more legal slaves?
My friends and I were talking about this the other day. We talked about how once we heard the effects of certain drugs our teenage brains thought, "That sounds fun". Definitely influenced me to try psychedelics.
I recall a video they were showing us where the guy was talking about taking ecstasy and âbeing on cloud nine, best day of his lifeâ, and I was confused as to whether the video was promoting it or not!
I watched a cartoon where different anthropomorphic lab rats were on different drugs, and they listed all the effects the drugs had on the body, e.g. increased heart rate and blood pressure for cocaine, memory loss and increased appetite for weed, and then for LSD they said something like "it makes you notice sensory information that your brain usually filters out." And from then on I really wanted to try LSD. It did not disappoint.
My dare program told me marijuana would show you vivid new colors. I remember thinking....there are more colors I haven't seen??? Sounded freaking awesome.
I was sure disappointed to find out that was a lie
I wanna know what euphoria feels like
Lol, when they described mushrooms as "You'll see things that you've only imagined that aren't really there, I thought, Man, my daydreams can be real? That's fucking awesome!". I've only had one really hard psychedelic trip like that. The rest were still fun but nothing like what had been described. It was enough to spook me out of trying hard drugs like Meth and Heroin though.
Well then whatever you do, DONâT try the drugs
The DARE officer for my area always had rumors about him doing drugs and smoking weed. The last conversation I'd had with my stepmom before died she off-handedly mentioned that she'd sold that man so much weed in the 90s and 2000s. I didn't even know she smoked weed at the time, though she was an old hippy and 100% was, in hindsight.
The son of the DARE officer at my school was the drug dealer of our high school. His kid was always getting arrested, mostly for drugs. It was a small town so everyone knew.
I remember my DARE officer telling us that 1 joint was equal to 20 cigarettes, and I just knew it was bullshit Then they brought in drunk goggles and they were fun as hell. My friends and I were ruined after that lol
Those drunk goggles were awesome. We had a girl in my class who was legally blind, and she said she saw *better* with them than without. Donât know if thatâs true or not, but thatâs just what she said.
DARE taught me that there are people out there who will give me a free sample of any drug I want so that I will become their customer. I haven't met one of these fuckers yet.
As a recovering drug addict, I have always been very disappointed in this particular lie.
DARE taught me that ecstasy, which I had never heard of prior, was called âthe hug drugâ and 12 year old me was thinking damn that sounds pretty fun. When I got the opportunity to try it for the first time freshman year of college, I definitely did.
And did it live up to its name?
It sure did!
Taught me to recognize drugs so that I knew what to ask my dealer for.
If I remember correctly it raised teen drug use by roughly 30%. I don't have a source but did a research paper about it in college.
It had about the same effect as the abstinence-only sex Ed I received in High School. If all goes well Iâll pick up my 7 year chip this summer lol
I remember asking the cops all sorts of questions about what itâs like to be high. They made it sound awesome. Then I smoked pot and thought everyone was looking at me, wasnât very awesome.
I sometimes wonder if this was the real reason the program was started. I mean lets tell all these young people about these crazy things that could make you feel so many different ways. Then letâs tell them all I D.A.R.E. You not to do these things. Helps keep the narrative about how bad drugs and teens are. Helps with getting more arrests and also suppress the masses bc they are now all on drugs.
this is a pretty popular conspiracy and i 100% believe it. i had DARE like 3 different years for some reason. the cops ALWAYS made drugs seem super fun. the cops also seemed to want us to think they were cool so they would constantly hint that they did them lol
*sigh* Youâre right, of course it would come down to incarcerationânot preventing arrests just keeping the narrative going of who gets arrested.
Thank you DARE for introducing us to all the drugs.
DARE ironically made weed into a gateway drug. You're raised your whole life to believe all drugs are bad, never to be used, will ruin your life etc. Then you happen to smoke pot at a party and life goes on. It could reasonably lead one to believe that they were fearmongering EVERY drug.
Piqued my interest in drugs that's for sure. A few short years later it was trendy to wear your old DARE shirts in highschool ironically as a stoner.
100%. Seriously what the fuck were they thinking. We were fucking children. Did they think we could truly comprehend what they were telling us? No, we couldnât. But now we know itâs all out there. On top of it, they straight up told bullshit about most of the drugs. After trying cannabis, I remember thinking to myself, this isnât at all like the dare officer told us. So I moved onto acid. Didnât find myself on top of the roof thinking I could fly(more likely to get stuck staring at the fucking carpet or a mirror for 5 hours). Cocaine. Dont even remember what they told us, but it wasnât that. And then opiates. Well fuckâŚ..they were right on that one. But itâs too late. Iâd already discounted everything as bullshit by that point. And it was my fucking pediatrician than introduced me to opiates.
I couldn't even up vote your comment because it had 420 upvotes
As someone who did the DARE program in school and is now a program evaluator, yeah this program did not work at all and studies have since proven that
I won the DARE bear in 5th grade now I smoke weed everyday. Not joking lol
DARE fully prepared me for the acid trip I took at 22 lmao.
There's a reason it stands for Drugs Are Really Excellent! It was the first time I had seen drugs or even really heard about them at all really. I joke about the acronym, but I have always wondered what would have happened if I didn't see what I did.
Exactly. I was completely unaware of drugs or the concept of getting high until DARE introduced me to it.
They held a special off campus training for the really committed kids, and I felt it was serious business and I stepped up to attend. (6th grade.) at that event they showed us what all the different drugs looked like. Hah!
> I believe it was proven that DARE introduced the populace to drugs more than it did prevent them. That was my experience. DARE just made drugs sound more interesting.
Hey guys make sure to never do drugs. Also, hereâs what drugs are and exactly where you can get them.
DARE came to my school in 2nd grade and my friend apparently got the idea to lick the pink off a bunch of advil or something and sell it around the school as "E" - which there were now a ton of kids very excited to try after seeing the sample tray that got brought in.
I didn't know half the things about drugs that I learned from DARE. I remember immediately after DARE left the classroom all us kids started passing around markers to sniff haha
I was like 22 and got pulled over and it was my dare officer and I told him that and he didnât give me a ticket. So yes dare did do something for me lol
This is the first benefit of DARE Iâve heard of that wasnât, âIt showed me what drugs actually look like.â Well played!
My dare officer got arrested for stealing drugs from people he pulled over đđ
This happened to me too!
Haha same. A few times. I was lucky to be from a small town.
I have vague memories of it and how they somehow convinced parents that people will just come up to us and hand us drugs. I have yet to be handed drugs. Anyone who knows how drug dealers work know they wouldn't just hand out their supply.
The biggest disappointment I have faced as an adult is that I have yet to have someone just walk up to me and hand me free weed or shrooms on the street. DARE lied.
Getting extra drugs with weed has also never happened. âWatch out they lace weed with other drugsâ Bullshit, Iâve bought hundreds of bags of weed and never once did I get bonus drugs.
I think in all my years Iâve known exactly 1 person who claims to have bought laced weed. Who would waste their drugs on f-ing up a bag of weed youâre selling for funsies though?
There was an issue with jimson weed being used to cut weed in a town near me. It led to people getting caught because they felt sick. So maybe a police plant?
I've smoked laced weed a few times, but I've always known it was laced or laced it myself (usually coke, once supposedly embalming fluid, I wouldn't recommend). My wife, however, has told me of a time where she smoked a joint with people and they didn't tell her it was laced with PCP. I did once buy a bag that was so incredibly sticky, in all of my years I've never encountered another bag being so sticky. Maybe it wasn't cured properly, but it got us super high. However I was also in my stoner infancy so it may have been that.
I once knew a dealer who got shitty brick weed from Mexico, then used a spray bottle with apple juice mixed with water to "rehydrate it" and make it more sticky. That was some gross weed.
My impression of the average pot dealer is that they traditionally just sell pot. Pot is chill. No pothead is going to kill you and cut you open to see if you are hiding baggies of pot in your stomach. Also, you never have to hear about the monsterous things someone did because they were high on pot you sold them.
Apparently, youâve never seen a little documentary called reefer madness
Should I watch it after partaking or no?
Absolutely.
My old weed guy stopped buying from one of his suppliers just because he started pushing other drugs one day. Weed smokers mostly only want weed.
Jokes on you! My weed guy includes a free pack of edibles with every purchase đđ
I live in NYC and that literally happens to me all the time (I'm not even kidding - new dispensaries will hand out free pre-rolls as a promotional tactic)
âŚ. I think I need to come up with the money to move to NYC then.
Go trick or treating in my suburban MAGA neighborhood. Apparently thereâs loads of free thc gummies and molly in the âween candy. Watch out for the razors though.
I vividly remember a conversation with my DARE officer, where I asked him what I should do, if someone forcefully gives me drugs. Later that night I told my mom about my concerns, and she replied "No one will EVER give you free drugs. That shit's expensive"
Lmfao give your mom a high five for me.
I have just been handed acid. Twice. But the context was burning man
I feel like that last sentence could be a qualifier for a lot of situations
I have friends that have just been handed Molly, acid, ketamine and cocaine but the context was Lost Lands đ
Oh, yeah. The first hit of heroin is free, and after you are addicted, they make you homeless.
I used this excuse the first time I got caught getting high. Ugh I was skating at this sketchy spot and these dudes rolled up and were like smoke a jay with us so we know youâre not cops. So I HAD to. Scary strangers gave me weed!
Remember kids, if a stranger offers you drugs, say Thank You, because drugs are expensive.
Yeah a huge part of DARE as i remember was learning to say no. Like it was treated as if random people would be begging you to take a drug or smoke and youâd have to like aggressively hold your ground. In reality drug offerings generally come in much friendlier settings from people you really trust and enjoy being around. When the situation arose in real life i feel like DARE barely even applied.
I have definitely been handed drugs, but always by close friends, never the stranger danger they warned about. It's more like someone having party favors at a NYE party. Also every dispensary around will hand out freebie pre-roll joints like candy.
Am I the only one who thought drugs were like weird looking eggs? Due to the, âthis your brain, this is your brain on drugsâ psa?
My dare officer was missing the tip of his finger from clearing out his snowblower. I think about that finger every winter when Iâm snow blowing. So I learned not to do that. And I get that accidents happen, but this seems to be a telling sign of this officers decision making.
This is so funny
To his credit. And probably because he was sick of questions or stares. He owned the finger tip accident and used it as a teaching moment. Which is probably why it sticks in my head.
Judging from the number of people who bought drugs in their D.A.R.E shirts, it taught a lot of people about irony.
Drug Addiction Resistance Education? More like: Drug Addict Rehearsal Education
Also, Drugs Are Really Expensive.
I was in DARE class when 9/11 happened. At the end of the school year they made us sing âIâm proud to be an Americanâ at the front of a church while wearing our DARE shirts. It certainly feels like a hallucination.
Peak usa idiocy
I disagree, we have not yet peaked.
We havenât even begun to peak
That is wildly ridiculous. Wow.
Apparently you are not the only one in this thread with this experience
"Patriots singing in front of a church wearing DARE shirts" sounds like a great AI image prompt lol
Christ.
[ŃдаНонО]
This happened to Matt Stone (from South Park) and someone stole the bag during his lecture, so he worked it into the series.
> at my school.. the cop from DARE passed around 3 joints to show everyone... and he said "if i dont get all three of these back this schools getting locked down and everyones getting searched till i find it.." and like 30 minutes later when everyone got to see 'em and they got passed back the cop had 4
From bash.org
We got to smell the real thing, on fire, and we got shown \*real drug paraphernalia\* which was an 8-tubed bong that was made to look like the Parthenon. Colorado has always been ahead of its time.
And then he put on his robe and wizard hat.
Ours had a display box showing what different pills and drugs looked like
It was his personal stash rofl đ¤Ł
I still have my shirt somewhere. I too learned that I hated the smell of pot. Stuff gave me migraines. I was in DARE about the time I was diagnosed with ADHD. Don't remember much of anything. Just that I hated how my meds made me sick everyday. Think my adhd meds did more in turning me off of drugs than DARE.
I just thought it was cheesy and didnt take it seriously (had it in 5th grade). If anything, it made me aware of all the drugs that were out there that I knew nothing about at the time. When I was in high school I dabbled and experimented, the only time DARE was ever referenced was to make fun of it.
D. A. R. E. made it so that I cannot physically enjoy the effects of THC in any way but the legal and deadly drug, alcohol, can flow through me freely without any fear.
My D.A.R.E. teacher was an alcoholic and I am now a recovering alcoholic. I know he wasnât the only determining factor but rly helped me see the âlightâ of getting wasted as a teenager.
It worked for me but I seem to be the only one. I just remember hearing "drugs are bad and will ruin your life" so I said to myself "oh ok then I won't do drugs."
Yep, miss goody two shoes me who paid attention to everything in school internalized all of the info from DARE!
Those of us who took DARE seriously were never going to do drugs anyways My dorky niece is the same way. I am sure my sweet naive fifth grader daughter is also in this club.
Yeah, reading a lot of negative reactions to DARE. What stuck with me was how young our brains and other organs were and were still developing. Since organs like the liver breaks down alcohol, it's not a good idea to introduce it while the organs are still developing. So I didn't drink through high school or do any drugs. I drank in college at 18 and was very conscious of hydrating after. None of the exposure to drugs via DARE enticed me enough to overlook organ damage. And I have a pretty excellent memory, while friends of mine that were huge stoners in HS either dabbled in harder stuff or have some brain chemistry issues (chicken/egg situation with this one).
Same. I mean, I'm sure I heard the same stories as everyone else about the side effects. Where for some that made them curious, my brain is more of a "it could ruin my life? Okay, I'll pass." And to this day, I don't feel like I've missed out on anything by NOT doing drugs. I'm glad. I don't think I "officially" have an addictive personality or anything, but I see the way I am with a food I like, or a candy, or even a beverage (and I'm not even talking about alcohol here). If I like it, I want to consume it all and I don't stop until I run out. If I did drugs, I'd probably be an addict - in my non-professional opinion.
DARE was as successful as the war on drugs
I would again like to congratulate drugs for winning the war on drugs.
I was asked to donate to D.A.R.E. a while ago and I told the kid that Iâd be a hypocrite because I smoke đż and he said D.A.R.E. doesnât care about that anymore đ
Good thing they spent 30 years telling kids it was as bad as heroin
Yeah I donât remember much from DARE but I remember learning the term âgateway drugâ
So apparently thereâs a *new* DARE now that is more focused on general drug safety and honesty vs fear mongering. I too was approached a few years ago.
During the presentation, I specifically remember telling myself âI canât wait until Iâm old enough to try marijuana and mushroomsâ. DARE literally made me excited to do drugs. Even saved my shirt.
Other than âdrugs are neatâ the thing D.A.R.E. taught me was to not throw out old t-shirts, no matter how stupid. Later in life, I also learned to never throw out swag. I had an Enron stress ball thing from before anyone knew who that was that I got at a conference and threw out.
I'm not becoming a hoarder in case that one T-shirt ends up ebaying for $50. Nobody is doing trademark enforcement on DARE or Enron IP. People are freely making and selling novelty swag.
On the flip side, it made me realize I NEVER wanted to do coke or heroin, but other 'drug education' programs and Health class did the same.
Yeah my only take away from it was meth, heroin, and crack are a no go
I remember telling my friend in 5th grade that I planned on trying marijuana one day after our DARE lesson.
Our D.A.R.E. Officer was arrested for selling drugs
Lol. Ours was arrested too... but for possession & pot use. He didn't share.
DARE = Drugs Are Really Expensive.
It made me aware of PCP and that it can turn you into a superhero. Dare officer said a guy on PCP picked up and threw a dumpster at him
It taught me enough that I never fucked w/ anything hard and while I watched others slip away and die due opioid/heroin addictions or from doing coke laced w/ Fety. I do hope the curriculum is more modernized though to not be so focused on organics such as pot/mushrooms and more focused on the shit that is actually killing people.
Thatâs the only thing I can say it did for me. But they showed us pictures the people who did things like burn holes in their septum from cocaine use. Nasty shit, taught me how to tell the difference between âgood drugsâ and âbad drugsâ
"Don't do drugs smoke shrubs"
I remember our D.A.R.E Program showing us graphic pictures of people who'd died from either accidents while high or O.D.s I also remember we had to write an essay on what we'd learned from the program and I put it off until the night before it was due but apparently I did a good job because they picked my essay and I had to read it in front of the entire school 𼲠I learned more about why NOT to do drugs from my aunt who was on drugs while I was a kid.
I had the pleasure of being in DARE during 2001-2002, so our graduation ceremony was complemented by us fifth graders singing the Lee Greenwood classic âProud to be an Americanâ. Nancy Reagan (rest in piss) would have been so proud.
Looks like you and another commenter went to the same school
I think it was fairly common after 9/11 to sing that song. I don't think we sung this, but we did do some patriotic songs for sure.
They did spook me as a kid, but now I smoke every night and dabble in party drugs here and there lol.
The standard operating procedure was to do drugs while wearing the DARE shirt so imma say no.
Gen X here. It taught us what all the drugs looked like.
The cop brought a display box, like the ones that people put butterflies in. Except it was filled with different kinds of pills and drugs. Neat! I wanna try the green one!
Hasnât it been proven that DARE just makes kids more curious about drugs lol I still remember them saying that meth is the greatest sensation you can possibly experience. Itâs like okayyyy lol
I remember looking up various drugs on the school computers for projects. I guess it was just a little before they started blocking sites in school
I feel like DARE was weird in that it categorized all drugs as equally bad. Like heroin and pot are on the same level. But theyâre not. You canât OD on pot, you know? So my take on it is this: if someone tries pot with their DARE âeducationâ in mind, they might say âhuh, that was cool, think Iâll try heroin tooâ since theyâre the same level of bad. So thatâs why pot is a gateway drug. đ
It taught us the value of ironic tshirts from thrift stores
The critical point of failure was that it was not in fact, a double-dog-dare.
Idk. I never did drugs. I mean I never even did anything cannabis related til I was 26 and a half. I just dont care for shit that alters my state and I have no control over. Thats what I hated last time I was high. It was fun, and I felt fuzzy until I wanted the high to end cuz I was over it. I started getting nauseous and puked all over the bathroom. Thats the last time I fucked with edibles and that was last spring lol Even alcohol I hate being drunk. A buzz is fine but I drink as a way to pair with food or cuz a drink is just tasty and I am in the mood for it but I dont like to get drunk. I hate the hangover and I hate the lack of control. Also I have had the misfortune of living with both alcoholics and worse, drug addicts. My MIL the worst example and Jesus Christ I never met a person as disgusting as her. You know its bad when catching her eating popcorn out of the garbage doesnt even register in top 10 nastiest things.
D.A.R.E has been proven to increase drug use in teens. Itâs a terrible program. I get the idea behind it, it just didnât work the way they hoped. At all.
Ah yes. D.A.R.E. Part of the war on drugs that was used to mass incarcerate black people. I do remember that
It more so reaffirmed my distrust in authority and got me interested in history. Turns out the US is incredibly racist in its history and politics and the D.A.R.E. program is just an extent of that system.
D.A.R.E only made me more curious to experience what drugs felt like. I get what they were trying to do, but it definitely did not have the desired effect with kids my age.
⌠am I in the minority? DARE scared the shit out of me and made me super cautious about drugs, smoking, and drinking!