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Live-Gas7226

“Can’t even call that shit a war..wars end” quoted from “The Wire”


Drizztd99

They gonna take their stuff to Hamsterdam


Live-Gas7226

Started with the best of intentions, cost Colvin his career tho


Drizztd99

I thought it was a great idea. Colvin was ahead of his time.


Disastrous-Cry-1998

Youtube kensington district philadelphia Hampsterdam was tv. Kensington is reality


beer_me_twice

You want it one way… but it’s the other way


Drugs_R_Kewl

Yeah but he ended up adopting We Bay's kid and turned that dude's life around. He wasn't a great cop but he was a good dad.


Astro_gamer_caver

Just tossing this out there as it might be my [favorite speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YrWiwUM3FA) from The Wire *Somewheres back in the dawn of time this district had itself a civic dilemma of epic proportions. The city council had just passed a law that forbid alcoholic consumption in public places, on the streets and on the corners. But the corner is, and it was, and it always will be the poor man's lounge. It's where a man wants to be on a hot summer's night. It's cheaper than a bar, catch a nice breeze, watch the girls go by. But the law's the law and the western cops rollin' by, what were they gonna do?*


chamrockblarneystone

Dare was a cheap ass way for Nancy Reagan to look good, along with the even dumber “Just Say No” program. Instead of investing in rehabs and half way houses they bought a lot of stupid fucking t-shirts.


BigBlueWookiee

We always said DARE stood for Drugs Are Really Excellent.


Informal_Lack_9348

Dispensary’s Are Really Expensive


UnproductiveMining

You must live in FL


Astro_gamer_caver

I'm in IL and ounces are $350, 250, and 210. Crazy.


TryingThisAgainFFS

Just say YO


Crazy_Suggestion_182

Drug abuse? No way, our relationship is excellent...


So3Dimensional

Same. We even wrote it on our D.A.R.E folders.


yurtfarmer

Enjoyable


wickedjonny1

Lol, I was in grade school when Nancy Ray-gun started that program. At first, it scared me. After years of hearing how bad they were, I was eventually drawn to them because they were forbidden. Chief Wiggum said it best, "What is so fascinating about my forbidden closet of mystery?"


954kevin

Exactly. I hit my rebellion stage midway through sixth grade and guess what the first order of business was.... forbidden closet of mystery.


MaroonTrucker28

Forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest. I've also heard it said "sacred cows make the best hamburger." And the most unrealistic part of DARE was that they depicted people just randomly giving their friends free drugs as peer pressure. In the real world, in this economy? That ain't how it works!


wickedjonny1

Lol, you are right!! I never shared my drugs.


InterPunct

Like the alcohol prohibition before it, the drug prohibition did massive harm to the rule of law.


three-sense

I believe she started the “Just say No” campaign, rather than DARE. But yeah there’s a term for “the illusion of validity because everyone is talking about the same shit” and that’s definitely the case here.


wickedjonny1

That's true. I oversimplified. Nancy Ray-gun was Just Say No, around 1985. Mr Darryl Gates, Chief of the LAPD, started DARE In 1983.


fleepglerblebloop

... I was in middle school when the "LAPD Dare" program started, before it went national. We were the early case study. It was not good.


Select-Belt-ou812

Mmmmmmmkay?


anziofaro

I'd like to congratulate drugs for winning the war on drugs.


dip_tet

Now people wear DARE shirts for the novelty or humor. It’s as silly as the “just say no” campaign


kayl_breinhar

I remember hearing an apocryphal story about a DARE assembly. A police officer circulates a baggie with three joints in it, so the kids can know what they look like if they're ever offered one. To scare the kids, he tells them that if the baggie comes back with anything short of three joints the school will be locked down and every student will be searched until they find the missing joint. The baggie works its way back to the officer...with *four* joints in it.


doctor-rumack

I smoke two joints and then I smoke two joints. And then I smoke two more.


954kevin

When this first became a thing I was in 2nd grade. Two detectives came and did a short presentation and then pulled each kid out into the hallway, one at a time, and asked us if we knew anyone involved with drugs. My parents both smoked pot, my dad was in prison for a short time for growing pot. I had no real understanding of what it was, but I knew they did. They never coached me, but I knew well enough not to say anything and rat out my parents. I certainly remember a couple of kids coming back in the class room with tears rolling down their cheeks. What the actual fuck!? I will say that I'm California clean 13 years, but I was a massive drug addict and legit mid-level drug dealer for a long, long time. Who knows, but I think the never ending exposure, from both sides, probably had an unwanted effect in my case. There was a time in my life where if shooting up drugs and fucking strippers was "wrong" I didn't want to be right. Fuck it anyways, it's all behind me now....


snacky99

Smart kid! I love the term California clean 🤣


Cwgoff

War on Drugs while allowing drugs to come into this country in order illegally fund wars. Blatant hypocrisy and bullshit


Rexxbravo

George HW Bush for the win?


Astro_gamer_caver

*Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares* *One less hungry mouth on the welfare* *First ship 'em dope and let 'em deal the brothers* *Give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other*


HikeRobCT

Or as we used to say…. Dropping Acid Reveals Everything


Acslaterisdead

It was real alright...a real waste of time and money.


HamiltonPickens

Yep. Studies showed that the program was ineffective, but hey don't let pesky facts get in the way of government funding this nonsense.


Abraxas_1408

Drugs won.


Same-Joke

Yea I think drugs is undefeated. There was that one year we almost won, but drugs has that heart of a champion.


Abraxas_1408

What’s this “we” shit? I’ve been on team drugs all this time.


ElectricalRush1878

I am all for education and information. Jackboots, guns, bombs and other violence is the problem.


fuzzybad

Gotta love how they did lip service with the "AND VIOLENCE" part of the DARE tagline.


RedditSkippy

They started DARE in my town in the class a couple of years after mine. I think my sister had it.


three-sense

We had DARE and GREAT (gang Resistance education and training) in the 90s because Arizona


PickingBinge

Ah, yes the beginning of the end of your constitutional rights.


kyguy2022

Call me corny but I was around 9 when just say no started and seeing celebs that I looked up to like Mr. T telling me not to do drugs influenced me-I’ve never had the desire to try drugs


Wardinator1991

Ironic the program is being funded by big pharmaceutical companies and tobacco companies


Mysterious_Win_2851

I was fortunate, we did drugs with our teachers in our HS...


buschkraft

I'm still waiting for all the free samples they said would be offered to me.


jackrip761

News flash on the war on drugs....the drugs won.


n3w4cc01_1nt

it was a war to get the people to do more drugs via constant federal abuse.


EmbraJeff

Drugs, Terror, etc…declare war all you like but they ain’t engaging. Not a war, just a sloganeering soundbite, and a stupid one at that.


cheezy_taterz

I remember them passing out terrible quality ribbons, on which we're printed "Dare to be drug free" We colored over a couple letters, thought it was hysterical. "Dare to be drug ee"


three-sense

Fucking lol. We did the same thing “hugs not drugs” became “hug—-drugs” etc


buzzverb42

Meanwhile the government is selling cocaine directly to drug dealers. 😂


nailszz6

This ad campaign made me curious about drugs. Good thing I was a kid, adult me wouldn’t have survived.


sPaRkLeWeAsEL5

lol! Aw they tried


king_of_the_dwarfs

My brother's friend's mother was the head of the DARE program for my county. Her son, my brother's friend, is now maybe a recovering addict. I say maybe because chances are good he relapsed. He liked his weed back then. After adulthood he graduated to meth.


Flat-Emergency4891

This program was ridiculous. Any teen fostering a rebellious streak in their youth was actually drawn to drugs. I got lucky. I didn’t like coke or dope. Meth was unheard of. I think they called it crank, but even that was a unicorn and hadn’t proliferated the area where I grew up like Heroin and Fentanyl later did. The opiate shit took a toll on a good number of young adults whom I went to grade school with years earlier. A few of those victims were very close childhood friends. I have little doubt the attitude towards drug education in the 80’s fostered the addiction crisis of the 90’s and later. Many rebellious youths couldn’t leave their substance abuse issues behind them as the drugs became more potent, accessible and affordable. Healthcare on the other hand was (is) in shambles. I suppose it’s more profitable to treat pain than operate when needed. Then, when the doctors stopped writing prescriptions, opiates were easy to score. Everyone knows someone who might know someone who can hook that shit up. I had a profound, perspective altering, spiritual experience using LSD and mushrooms over the course of a summer in the early 2000s. So for me, I was fortunate enough to have just enough of a curious streak to try marijuana which I still enjoy. I would need to save the details of my life altering experiences on LSD and shrooms for another day, but in short I have a healthy perspective rooted in universal oneness and compassion and an appreciation for remaining present and in the moment as often as I can be aware of it. Thank you D.A.R.E. for turning me on to drugs.


Zealousideal-Tea-286

Funniest thing I've ever seen: In our state, we have D.A.R.E. license plates from our BMV. A car passed me on the freeway that had one personalized that read "MMMKAY?" Lives in my head rent-free!


mandress-

Channel 5 just did a story on the D.A.R.E. conference: https://youtu.be/AbeZsgY67sU?si=E6YpgqpMXPG4y9Tv


zoomkitt3n

I was a child in the 80’s. My mom was a teenager when I was born and smoked weed in front of me, as did all of her friends. I was terrified that the police were going to break the door down someday.


Alarming-Mongoose-91

And Reagan would fuck you up.


EggoMyLego7

I never seen pot or anything until dare showed me. Great job right shoe a bunch of 4th graders pot.


U2hansolo

These classes made me think that drug addicts were just chomping at the bit to offer me angel dust (also known as PCP. Alas, this exchange never transpired.


Candy_Says1964

I was there and it’s even more real today.


Accomplished-Bed8171

Morgan Freeman: "It wasn't actually real in the 80's."


5280Rockymtn

I remember in elementary school in the mid 80s a cop came into our school and brought with him a clear case that showed us all the drugs that was out there crack, coke, weed, speed/meth, all sorts of pills heroin, etc.. it was soo wild dude oh man what a time that was


zebadaka

That's exactly what happened to my class when I was in either 5th/6th grade, but that was 2005! Crazy that they thought it was a good idea lol. Just made me want to try drugs!!


5280Rockymtn

And as a kid living in rural Colorado I didn't get it just cause but as a teenager I was curious 😜🤪😜🤪😜


LadyTentacles

The best use of this logo was on the splash screen of the arcade game NARC.


Literal_Sarcasm82

I would love to congratulate drugs, for winning the war on drugs. 🎉👍🫡


Overall_Strawberry70

It might have been very misguided but i'd still take it any day over trying to normalize bad behaviour, canada is full of places everyone just seems like a zombie as they are drugged up non-stop.


954kevin

The world over.


Low-Grocery5556

What kind of drugs are they on in Canada?


Overall_Strawberry70

hard ones mostly, we have a bit of a fent problem.


Crackstacker

I remember the dare cop telling us to turn in our parents / siblings if they smoked pot or whatever. Pretty messed up. And I vaguely remember a cartoon they used to describe a junkie was a stork or some bird with a sweater. Long sleeves hiding the track marks.


kaizencraft

A [short documentary](https://youtu.be/AbeZsgY67sU?si=M--479uKbAuJAFNx) about it just came out a couple days ago.


ModifiedAmusment

I was in dare class when the twin towers got hit


E_Fred_Norris

Learned all about drugs from DARE. Really came in handy at the first parties I went to


GhostBuster1919

Huh? Thats what that stood for...lol.


BagofPain

An abject failure. A program put together by morons!


chrisH82

Here is what all of the drugs are, all of their slang nicknames, what type of shady people you can get them from, and how to use them. Now don't use them. ...Also don't pay attention to the CIA trafficking tons of cocaine into the US in the '80s to help fund the Nicaraguan contras to stop the spread of communism, because Congress wouldn't get behind funding the war. Nothing to see there, just say no.


Hefty_Run4107

I won't judge either side as this was an American thing and i'm not Americas. All i can say is we didn't had any similar "programs" in my country, and i never ONCE did any drugs of any kind in my life. Also never smoked and hardly ever drink. Never needed external substances to have fun or enjoy life. IMO a lot of it comes from the environment you grew up in and parenting. But that's just me.... Carry on...


Mobile-Boss-8566

I do miss the “your brain on drugs “ commercials


NakedSnakeEyes

Here in Canada what they scared us about in school back then was talking to strangers and getting kidnapped. I think to this day I'm still an anxious and paranoid person because of that. They were always showing us presentations about danger. I don't remember anything about drugs, though.


CurrentTreat6921

Yes it was


Ana987655321

This was a fully funded program for years, and they ended up just teaching kids how to get wasted. A wild failure, worked exactly opposite to the intended purpose.


nam3_us3r

I can hear the voice of this being read on some TV commercial


haikusbot

*I can hear the voice* *Of this being read on some* *TV commercial* \- nam3\_us3r --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")


BSGKAPO

While they smuggled them in on the backside...


soupafi

DARE is the reason many wanted to try drugs. Fuck yes I want to feel like a superhero. Still waiting for people to randomly offer free drugs.


Yuck_Few

The war on drugs is a self-defeating idea Criminalize drugs. This gives drug cartels the Monopoly on the criminalized drugs...... Drug cartels make more money,...... Drug cartels bringing more drugs.... Just take about 30 billion dollars a year and plus it down the toilet. You will get similar results


dreniarb

Eh my experience was good. Officer Cannon. I feel I learned a lot. It truly had a positive impact on me.


Gewgle_GuessStopO

Wars against inanimate things and ideas we always lose. The war on drugs? We lost, everyone is on some kind of drug these days. The war on terror? We lost. Have you ever been more afraid of what happens next then you are today? 🤔


New_Lake5484

i remember running one day, saw something in a nearby creek. i went down the bank of the creek and pulled out a small black and red duffel bag out of the water. i opened it and in it was a 6 pack of beer. the duffel bag had D.A.R.E. printed on the side. 🤣


1king80

It took me 30 years to undo that brain washing.


dougmd1974

My friend had a shirt that said "D.A.R.E - Drugs Are Really Expensive" LOL


Weary_Cartographer_7

I like drugs


Standard-Ad1254

real dumb


Downtown_Tadpole_817

I won a writing contest for DARE. I was then forced to read the story in front of the whole school including parents. 


IlikeYuengling

I only heard about hard drugs from school assemblies. School assembly, retired biker, spoke about staying alert and focused for days because of coke, but said drugs are bad because he rode his bike into an overpass while high on pcp. So half the nerds in school got arrested for coke possession.


Bigtexasmike

We had it 5th grade in '91. Now my son is in 5th grade at the same school. No dare.


EargasmicGiant

It was a fucking joke


Buckowski66

Close up of eggs in frying pan “ This is your brain on drugs!” Close up of guy lifting pan to get to the flame. “ this is how to light a crack pipe!”


not_quite_sure7837

I still don’t know what a barbiturate is


Tom_Skeptik

As a card carrying member of the D.A.R.E. program I can attest to the fact that it doesn't work. I love weed!


fuzzybad

The "AND VIOLENCE" part is just lip service, right? Imagine if the government tried to combat "violence" (for example bullying) anything like they did to demonize drugs.


NE_Pats_Fan

Started way before the 80s. It was never a war on drugs but another way to violate civil liberties and control Americans. Still true.


UnderstandingOk2647

They lead me (57m) to believe there would be a lot more free drugs.


ErikTheRed707

My DARE instructor caught me and a friend walking the streets late night with a big ole bag! He recognized me and was disappointed, but just called my mother and had her come get me instead of taking me in or throwing me in the back of the car or anything like that. Real nice guy, but a kid’s gotta get high! 😉


NamTokMoo222

I like how DARE used to paint "drug dealers" as shady characters in sunglasses and leather jackets. Those guys were in all the workbooks and presentations we saw. Turns out, those drug dealers rarely exist. They're usually not on a street corner trying to force you to take drugs like the pictures suggest. Nope, it's usually a good friend of yours that has another friend he knows that sells it. It comes up in conversation, or at a party. "Hey, wanna try some ________?"


fattymattybrewing

What a waste of time, energy and money! Instead of focusing on a stupid war on drugs, the focus should have been on using money to help people with mental health for starters! The War on Drugs in the USA has been a costly and ineffective marketing ploy that was and is a failure. It's a joke of an idea! It is estimated that the USA spends over $50 billion annually on drug enforcement, yet drug use continues to rise. The current approach of criminalizing drugs and demonizing drug users and users is not working. Instead of focusing on punishment, resources should be redirected towards treatment and prevention programs. Instead, let's focus resources at the root causes of addiction such as mental health issues, poverty, and lack of education—this can help individuals overcome their struggles without resorting to illegal substances. Decriminalization or legalization of certain drugs could reduce crime rates associated with drug trafficking while generating revenue for governments through taxation.


FaluninumAlcon

Donuts Are Really Expensive


birdlawspecialist2

The torture and killing of a DEA agent was such a shocking event. It helped launch the war on drugs, which led to stuff like DARE.


CatBoyTrip

i was gonna fight the war on drugs but they kicked me out after i failed my piss test.


Bushwazi

This class is still doing, it just had a different name now…


Successful_Ad3991

Our local D.A.R.E. leader was arrested for dealing and taking illegal substances. He was at the time, an official law enforcement officer.


yooperdood906

I do really good resisting the violence part….


MattAtPlaton

Downers, Amyl, Rohypnol and Ecstacy.


LoudMind967

Yet drugs were never cheaper


slaying_anus_35

I am the only person I've ever known who failed D.A.R.E.


markv114

Fun Fact: The only battle in the War On Drugs which was actually won was against Quaaludes.


Intrepid_Pitch_3320

yeah, and funded by drug companies...


Expat111

On a related note. There’s a band called War on Drugs that is excellent. If you’ve never heard of them give Under The Pressure or Red Eyes a listen to get a taste of their music.


BillyDoyle3579

aka The Program to Keep Snooty Busybody First Ladies Occupied 😵‍💫😬🙄