By Bill Maher

While we were off, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III spoke at a training conference for DARE, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. That’s where cops come into schools and tell kids not to use drugs. You may remember it from high school in the 80s and 90s. I know I do.

Sessions spoke of bringing the program back, and harder than ever, to reduce the scourge of drugs in our communities. Because rural white people are the ones in trouble now – a.k.a. Sessions’ people. Except, most of us know DARE as the perfect example of a government program that’s “Nice idea, zero results.” A review of 11 studies on the effectiveness of DARE. found it had little or no impact on drug use. As the researchers put it, “Given the tremendous expenditures in time and money involved with D.A.R.E., it would appear that continued efforts should focus on other techniques and programs that might produce more substantial effects.” These results are also pretty well known in policy circles – DARE is a waste of money. And I thought Democrats were supposed to be the ones who support programs whether they work or not.

But the opioid epidemic is very, very real. Maybe we should send the cops into hospitals and medical buildings, where they can tell doctors to quit hooking their patients on Oxycontin and Vicodin?