Westville 6th-graders graduate from D.A.R.E. program

Kaighla White Kaighla., Commercial-News, Danville, Ill.
·3 min read

May 25—On Thursday afternoon, four classes of 6th graders packed into the gymnasium at Judith Giacoma Elementary in Westville to commemorate their completion of the D.A.R.E. program.

D.A.R.E. (Drug Use Resistance Education) has been around since 1983, when school administrators in Los Angeles, California, and the Los Angeles Police Department teamed up to help educate students on the dangers of drug use and addiction, according to the D.A.R.E. website.

While older generations were warned about the dangers of cocaine and heroin use and marijuana as a gateway drug, today's youth face a much more serious problem: the opioid epidemic.

One example of the highly dangerous synthetic opioids being abused today is fentanyl, which "can be thousands of times more poisonous than heroin," according to Illinois Department of Public Health's Overdose Action Plan.

Vermilion County, in particular, has one of the highest rates of hospitalization for opioid and heroin overdose in the state, according to an IDPH study from 2016, and there were 70 fatal overdoses of opioids in Vermilion County in 2022, according to IDPH's Opioid Database.

D.A.R.E. has risen to the challenge presented by the changing landscape of drug addiction. Officer Jay Miller, a Vermilion County sheriff's deputy, has been teaching the D.A.R.E. curriculum for the past 15 years at schools all around the area, and he's seen some key changes in the curriculum.

"We teach a totally different curriculum than when I was first certified on this. It used to be I'd come and teach them about a new drug each week. Now, it's a lot more of scenario-based and lifeskill-based teachings," Miller says.

"The curriculum we teach today is called the D.A.R.E. decision-making model, where you define the problem, assess your choices, respond, and then you evaluate your decision for yourself," Miller says.

D.A.R.E. is just one way in which Illinois is working hard to combat the opioid addiction crisis "using research-based, non-stigmatizing, and effective strategies," according to a January 2020 Opioid Action Plan Implementation Report.

IDPH's Opioid Action Plan aims to combat this rise in opioid-related deaths. The plan focuses on five key categories for preventing drug abuse, including Social Equity, Prevention, Treatment and Recovery, Harm Reduction, Justice-Involved Populations, and Public Safety, according to the IDPH website.

In December 2017, the Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery (IDHS/SUPR) launched the Illinois Helpline for Opioids and Other Substances (Helpline).

The helpline offers multi-lingual, 24-hour, 7-day/week, 365 day/year support, providing treatment referral and informational support services for both individuals struggling with OUD (Opioid Use Disorder) and their supporters, according to the 2020 Opioid Action Plan Implementation Report. The Helpline had received 19,860 calls as of December 23, 2019.

If you or someone you know is struggling with opioid addiction, help is available. Call 833-2FINDHELP or visit HelpLineIL.org.