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Our View
Support DARE
Republican Senator Mark Obenshain is to be commended
for introducing a bill that would let
Virginia judges stiffen the sentence of traffickers in large amounts of methamphetamine. State lawmen have been taking their cases to federal court to get tougher sentences which ties them up in travel and briefing time. This will smooth the way to better enforcement.
The senator represents the counties of the upper Shenandoah Valley as well as Rappahannock County and he is correct that the Shenandoah area has become crossroads central for meth. Rappahannock law enforcement officers report that they haven’t had a methamphetamine drug arrest in Rappahannock County in recent years, but that is cold comfort in these times.
While Sen. Obenshain is in Richmond taking on the drug epidemic, we hope he’ll take a look at the DARE program. Rappahannock County Sheriff Capt. Jeff Brown tells us that despite the success of this program in our schools over more than a decade, budget cuts in Richmond have limited what the Virginia State Police can do to support this program. DARE is a national education program “Drug Abuse Resistance Education,” which Brown says tries to get students to make better choices.
“Kids don’t need drugs or alcohol in school,” he argues, “but you have to show them how to make better choices than drugs.” Brown likes the program because it puts law enforcement officers in the classroom and gives the students a chance to see a policeman without “the blue light flashing and ‘give me your license and registration.”’
At the end of the last legislative session, he said, Virginia State Police were under enormous pressure to cut their budget. Among the cuts were several officers assigned to support DARE around the state. Brown said only one officer is still assigned statewide, but the state police coordinate some 125 programs statewide, arrange training programs and monitor the quality of the teaching. Brown thinks the legislators should persuade the state police to restore the funding. We agree.
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