I will never forget the first time my DARE instructor entered my classroom in fifth grade. The horror stories are still vivid in my memories, as is the image of the burly police officer passing out pamphlets addressing the evils of marijuana.

For those who are unfamiliar, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE,  is a program through public schools where a police officer comes into your classroom once a month to tell you drugs and alcohol are bad. These lectures consisted of a middle-aged man role playing with a room full of kids to practice “just saying no” to drugs.

As a 10-year-old girl, these presentations made me dread the inevitable day I would have to use my “just say no” skills. Yet, despite the DARE literature, I have yet to be pressured into drinking alcohol or doing drugs.

In the 11 years since my DARE experience, there has not been a single instance where anything in those pamphlets came true. If you ask me, this whole DARE thing is a scam. And I am not the only one who thinks so.

When I typed “DARE conspiracy” into my search engine, I had low expectations. However, my dreams came true when I stumbled upon a few questionable blogs confirming my suspicions.

One blog took my negativity towards DARE and morphed it into a full-fledged conspiracy theory. So, naturally, I dove in head first.

According to this anonymous blogger, DARE is a governmental scheme aimed to make Americans trust the police, become addicted to drugs, and susceptible to the inevitable grasp of the New World Order.

“DARE is helping to accomplish the true objectives of the socialist New World Order by indoctrinating school children to look at the police, or the state, as their true family,” the blogger said.

This blog explains DARE instructors are wolves in sheep’s clothing and are sent not to stop drug abuse, but encourage it. Ever since the program began in 1983, drug use among young people has remained stagnant..

An article in Time Magazine said the 2009 ten-year follow-up for the DARE program said high schoolers exposed to the program were no less likely to do drugs than high schoolers who were not involved with DARE. Essentially, DARE programs were a bust. But maybe that was on purpose.

“Drug abuse is creating a future generation that is slavishly dependent and unable to think or reason for themselves,” the blogger said. “DARE and other federally sponsored programs like it are a Trojan horse, dedicated to the molding of young minds to the bent of the New World Order.”

Whoever wrote this blog seems like they read “Brave New World” one too many times. While the prospect of a future authoritarian government like the New World Order feels more like an Orwellian nightmare than a possible reality, I’m not ruling it out yet.

All I know for sure is sitting through DARE presentations did not prevent the countless overdoses in my hometown. DARE may seem like just another failed anti-drug campaign, but maybe that’s what they want you to think. Maybe my overactive imagination from childhood is making a comeback, but something about DARE doesn’t sit right with me.

Do I believe DARE is part of the New World Order? Maybe, but probably not. Do I think it’s fun to focus on conspiracy theories instead of the dismal state of our country? You bet.