The long term effectiveness of DARE was assessed by contrasting drug use and other DARE related attitudinal variables among 356 12th grade students who received the program in 6th grade with 264 others who did not receive it. There was a significant relationship between earlier participation in DARE and less use of illegal, more deviant drugs (e.g. inhalants, cocaine and LSD). This effect was significant for males. Long term effects of DARE that were not perceptible after 3 years appeared among the males after six years when they were senior in high school. A possible explanation for this ‘sleeper effect’ is that the effectiveness of DARE was ‘suppressed’ until after the follow-up in 9th grade. This effect may not have arisen for the young women due at least partially to the fact that so few of them in either the DARE or control condition were using these hard drugs.

Richard L. Dukes et. al., University of Colorado, 1996.