In the past few months I have decided that peer pressure is a big fat myth.
By peer pressure, I mean peer pressure as most of us were taught from the elementary school level on: verbal encouragement to try drugs or alcohol.
Being a high school student, I happen to know a few people who do drugs and drink alcohol. (My opinion on these activities are irrelevant to my point, so please don't badger me with whether it is ok to drink or do drugs.) Never once has anyone ever said, "Hey, don't you want to smoke some pot? It will make you cool" or any of the other little scenarios we are taught in DARE. No one I know has ever been badgered to smoke or drink, and, to my knowledge, no one I know has been criticized for choosing not to participate.
Instead of peer pressure, the real problem is peer selection. If your friends do drugs (and they really are your friends) they probably won't pressure you to do anything you don't want to do. If you hang out with these people every weekend, however, and thy all get stoned and you just hang out sober, it can be tempting to try, at least once. When you are constantly around drugs, it is easy to just join in instead of staying on the outside; no one ever has to say a thing about your abstinence.
I recognize this is not true in all cases. Some people are very disciplined, and he or she can be in a room full of drunken friends and be o.k. with not imbibing. But I have seen over and over again peer selection influence a friend to try drugs.
We need to refocus the way we teach kids about drugs. Instead of just teaching them how to say know, they need to be able to know which situations can tempt them to try drugs and alcohol, the consequences, and how to ease the temptations imposed by peer selection.
I am not promoting dropping every friend who has ever had a drink or took a hit (I for one would have few friends), but, if you choose to remain sober, it is helpful to have at least one other friends with the same determination to keep each other accountable.
I'm not sure if any of this is the least bit coherent, but, since a recent drug bust at school, I've been thinking about how the drug education program at my school OBVIOUSLY didn't help much. Your ideas and suggestions are welcome and much appreciated.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
I agree with you that there is no peer pressure like that, in ways that are taught at dare. But I do believe that there is peer pressure. A few times I had people wanting me to smoke weed, I never did, but they would say "come on it fun, just try it". Once I even had people drag me to there spot, where they do smoke. I left as soon I was able to. And I know of a person with almost a similar case, but this person was forced to do it I mean literaly forced. But in all I think that people are teaching children a peer pressure that doesn't even exist. I do believe that there is peer pressure because it has happened to me.
No one has ever asked me to drink or do drugs or smoke at school either. I have been asked outside of school, and I just say nope, that's not for me, and people are totally respectful of it. I have never once been pushed to do anything I didn't want to do which is nice because I really do not like having to fight with people, although I will when my morals come into play.
DARE isn't effective at all. I've seen so many people that graduated from DARE turn to drugs and alcohol. I even knew of one group that had "DARE meetings" in which they wore their DARE shirts while smoking pot. Way to go, DARE.
I love abortion. Read more here:
http://progressiveu.org/044921-i-love-abortion-even-if-it-murder