A program in which children in our schools are made aware of harmful choices involving drugs and violence is now also discussing vaping.
The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, or D.A.R.E., is a worldwide program offered by both the RNC and RCMP for the past 17 years. Officers visit classrooms from kindergarten to grade 12 to equip students to resist peer pressure and avoid involvement in drugs and violence. That talk now also involves vaping which is on the rise among young people since the product was declared legal.
Twenty-seven police officers from Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and British Columbia currently taking part in training sessions in St. John’s heard from a doctor who recently developed training focused on vaping.
Harry Lawrenson, the national director of D.A.R.E. Canada, says officers now being trained will be going to the classroom next week for the first time. He says they will walk away with 80 hours of training. Next Thursday, they will be visiting a grade 5, 6 or 7 classroom in St. John’s.
