DARE to Say No

“Felker-Kantor’s research [may] be the key to understanding how the war on drugs expanded policing to the American school system, the effects of which still linger today.”—Booklist

“Intriguing social chronicle of the DARE anti-drug education program . . . . An approachable consideration of an unexamined aspect of the failed war on drugs . . . . evenhanded.”—Kirkus Reviews

"A comprehensive history of a program whose glory days may be behind it but that left an indelible mark on America—and not just as a target of mockery.”—Reason Magazine

“Max Felker-Kantor’s illuminating and highly original study demonstrates how the DARE program mirrored the LAPD’s racialized practices and how the 'soft' war on drugs undergirded the expansion of the carceral state. DARE to Say No will forever change the way we think about the war on drugs.”—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

“For decades, DARE has toggled between the 'solution' to the drug crisis and a generational joke. Max Felker-Kantor does something entirely new: he takes the program seriously, revealing how seemingly nonpunitive institutions like schools have become extensions of the country’s carceral state.”—Emily Dufton, Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America

“Masterful—DARE to Say No pierces through usual debates about the drug war with an original and damning framing. Many people have cultural impressions and memories of DARE, and Felker-Kantor’s book illustrates that the program’s significance is far wider and more complex than we imagined.”—Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, author of Getting Tough: Welfare and Imprisonment in 1970s America

“No such historical account exists of the most widespread and well-funded antidrug program in American history. Max Felker-Kantor’s carefully studied policy history on the underlying agenda of the DARE program will be readily welcomed by a range of scholars.”—David Farber, author of Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed

“As the demand for increased police presence in schools continues, Felker-Kantor’s timely analysis of the history of police-based antidrug programs shows clearly that these interventions don’t work. DARE to Say NO is a necessary read for anyone who thinks we can police our way out of this problem.”—Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing