I'm a decade older than you, or so, and thisbis exactly what we did have. Only it was a program from MADD, not DARE.

I don't remember DARE at all.

Anyway, it was an assembly and you had the cop and he spoke. The principal spoke. Some nurse and another advocate spoke.

We all yawned and rolled our eyes. As you do. We'd heard it all before. And as you said, there was a lot of dishonesty, misinformation, and propaganda to it. We reaponded with typical teenage apathy and boredom.

Then this guy got up and took the mic. He was rough, in an unhealthy looking kind of way. He looked like someone who had been drug down the road of life.

I'll never forget what he said. It was short, he didn't go on and on.

He said, "I'm not going to tell you not to do drugs. I know that eventually you will stop doing drugs. I know that because everyone eventually stops using drugs. You'll either get tired of the life and stop on your own, you'll quit in the morgue, or you'll quit in the nursing home. You'll have somebody to change your diaper and wipe the drool from your mouth but they won't being you drugs and you won't be able to get them yourself anymore."

And then he sat down. You could have heard a pin drop. The adults were displeased with his efforts and MADD wasn't invited back again, that I recall. That little speech upset the parents too much. Too raw and too real. Not enough stuffed dolls, I guess.