WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE DRUG FREE

This year I have learned a lot of things in D.A.R.E. class and I want to tell you about all of them.

First we learned what D.A.R.E. means, it means drug abuse resistance education and this means to learn to say no to misuse drugs.

Throughout the lessons we were given dare words. These were all the words that to do with drugs. Next we learned our rights as citizens. We even learned a whole bunch of facts about drugs.

The next lesson we learned about the 3 gateway drugs. 1 tobacco

2 alcohol

3 marijuana.

These are the drugs that lead you to do other drugs. Soon we learned the consequences of using drugs. You can get to be addicted on all drugs.

We learned the 4 sources of pressure.

1 personal pressure

2 family pressure

3 media pressure

4 peer pressure.

There are 4 kinds of peer pressure.

1 friendly pressure

2 teasing pressure

3 heavy pressure

4 indirect pressure.

We also learned that only 14 % of the nations kids drink alcohol. I thought it was 72%.

The next lesson we learned how to say no and come up with a excuse. When someone say s Come on. Let s drink some beer! I came up with the excuse No thanks, beer makes me drowsy and for some odd reason it makes me take Dramamine. Or when someone says Don t be a chicken. It s only a joint! . I would say Sorry joints make me hungry and I am trying to watch my wait. Or when someone even makes up something like, Come on. Take a sniff, or you re not my friend anymore. I would say well I guess I am not your friend anymore, my nose doesn t work, I can t sniff.

In about a week we learned the 8 golden stress reducers.

1 positive self talk

2 learn to relax

3 exercising

4 talk to someone

5 do favors for others

6 scheduling your time

7 accept things you can not change

8 breathing deeply or counting sheep.

These are golden because they really work.

The next lesson we made personalized license plates. It was really fun looking at what other people had on their license plates.

We learned the 5 ways to deal with disagreements.

1 was cool down

2 was state the problem or apologize

3 was ask for help

4 was talk it over

5 was make a compromise

The media uses 7 techniques to encourage you to do things.

1 bandwagon approach, Everybody drinks it.

2 snob appeal, Only rich and famous people drink it.

3 personal testimony, Try it, you ll like it!

4 public service announcement, Always buckle up!

5 sex appeal, beautiful people smoke.

6 having fun, Have a beer.

7 comparison, Light beer is better than regular.

Now you can see how it s wise to stay drug free.

Ian