I don’t think it’s a horrible program just because it at least gets SOME information into the hands of kids who’s parents do not or will not provide any.
For parents who have kids going through it, I’d just take the opportunity to open up your own conversation.
I went through it in elementary school, and then we had a little follow up in middle school at some point. I came home and at some point mentioned it to my parents, shortly after that my dad took me out for sandwiches (a big deal) and had a long talk with me about drugs.
He was completely honest. He told me what he’d tried/done, what he liked, what he didn’t like, what he recommended staying completely away from and why. Asked what I knew and if I was comfortable not participating if the situation wasn’t right. He explained realistically what kind of trouble you could get in both with regards to the law and yourself and then, probably most importantly, listened to me and answered questions. Then he told me he trusted me and I could call him if I ever got into a situation I was uncomfortable with. It was probably a 45 minute conversation, I never got the feeling he was advocating or discouraging it was more like he just wanted me to make informed decisions and understood information was scarce.
I hope I’m as good with my kids.