“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 foreverchange the way we think about the war on drugs.”
“For decades, DARE has toggled between the ‘solution’ to the drug crisis and agenerational 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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”