At least in my school district they were. These two organizations are supposed to discourage and prevent high school age students from drinking alcohol and taking drugs. SODA and DARE fail miserably when it comes to both of these tasks. SODA(Students OK without drugs and alcohol) and DARE(Drug Abuse Resistance Education) are run by students and faculty. They organize special events for students to participate in as an active alternative to drinking or taking drugs. Events like barbecues and free movie screenings make up the bulk of the event calender.
While all this sounds great, the organizations themselves are poorly managed. I know that many students in these two groups openly drank and/or took drugs. SODA and DARE makes no effort to follow up on anyone in the groups. Even though students are required to sign a pledge that says they will not drink or take drugs, this document is merely a formality to most and is for all intents and purposes, meaningless.
Aside from a ignorant freshman year in high school when I didn't know of all the goings on within my school, I refused to join either organization on moral grounds. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm outraged that defiance and ignorance of this magnitude can go unnoticed and unchecked by the school's administration.
Further, as far as the "Resistance Education" as part of the DARE acronym, this is also a joke, seeing as how it is all but commonplace, nay, a rite of passage, for college students to engage in underage drinking. While I don't condemn people for this choice, I do however condemn them for being complete hypocrites.
Digressing further, while drinking may be fine, binge drinking and the act of drinking in order to get drunk are more detestable practices that further exemplify the complete inadequacy of the SODA and DARE institutions.
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