July 18, 1998

Dear Marijuananews.com

Hello, I am a resident of Minnesota and occupy the age of 16. I am proud to state I am employed and obtain a 3.5 grade point average (B honor roll). I avidly enjoy the wondrous life-enhancing drug known as marijuana.

I was exposed to DARE’s wonderful education about how evil drugs are. Let me tell you this, at the time I believed Mr. Policeman 100% right away.

I was told only how evil marijuana was and how it contributes to so much heartache around the world that I should shun anyone from society that has anything to do with it, and nothing about its many beneficial uses. I got to view happy pictures of Mr. Bear without drugs and evil death riddled pictures of Mr. Bear with drugs.

Now I must admit I tend to avoid "hard drugs" because (one) they are damned expensive and (two) they can get you addicted.

But guess what the DARE attacked the most. Marijuana. A organic plant, with no chemicals or additives, which you cant overdose on and its effects considered beneficial by the medical world. They never had Mr. Bear selling crack or shooting up some heroine, it was always something to do with marijuana.

I was decorated as a DARE graduate with my shirt, my folder, my certificate of graduation, and hey who minds free stuff?

Well that was 5^th grade. 5^th grade man! I hadn’t had any contact with anything drug related in 5^th grade.

So what did this whole DARE program do? It made me curious. It made me wonder why oh why could something natural, which grows from the ground, hurt Mr. Bear so much? This made me extremely curious. Curious up to the point of experimentation.

Then and there I found what DARE did for me. You know what? I like DARE. DARE gives kids the curiosity factor which leads them into finding one of the best plants on earth! DARE may as well just give everyone a box with a joint inside and say "don’t open that, what’s in there is bad and if you open that box....."

So in a way DARE is a contradiction to itself. I thought I would fill you in from someone’s point of view who experienced the program. Thanks for your time.