D.A.R.E.—or “Drug Awareness Resistance Educationâ€�—is a school program that teaches little kids about the evils of drugs. It also encourages kids to trust the cops, narc on their parents, and view all drugs—pot in particular—as a one-way tickets to prison. Needless to say D.A.R.E. employs the kind of scare tactics that tend to backfire.

Once offered in nearly every school in America, D.A.R.E. has been in retreat for about a decade, as studies keep rolling in showing that the expensive program has no impact or the opposite of its intended impact:

…despite its widespread use and $209 million budget, DARE’s long-term effectiveness at deterring drug use has come under widespread questioning lately. A recent study of 1,800 Illinois elementary- through high-school students concluded that DARE doesn’t work—and may even increase drug use among some groups of kids exposed to it. An Indiana study also reported that DARE had little effect on drug attitudes among teenagers, finding that DARE graduates were actually more likely to have recently smoked marijuana than those who hadn’t taken the course.

Today’s King County Journal reports that Bellevue is the latest city to drop the D.A.R.E. program …

At the end of this school year, the Bellevue Police Department will end its involvement in D.A.R.E., becoming the latest law enforcement agency in King County to drop the well-known drug and prevention program in public schools.

In calling for an end to his department’s 17-year involvement with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, Bellevue police Chief Jim Montgomery cited several studies stretching back more than 15 years.

They show, he said, that D.A.R.E. students are no more likely to avoid tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use when they get older than are other students.

This is, needless to say, very good news—particularly for those dope-smoking parents in Bellevue.