Snort. Such hyper-alarmist anti-drug spots are the reason why in the end none of the stuff teachers or whoever tell about drugs will be taken seriously by kids.
I liked our drug prevention in school though, it was very non-alarmist but gave you the facts. Like we got these very long lists of banned substances and their various street names and in what forms they would appear when sold, and a somewhat shorter list of legal substances that are (ab)used as drugs, and then what long and short term effects they have (are they physically addictive or only psychologically, how high are their addictive properties, are they stimulants, sedatives, halucinogens..., do they have the potential for effects like flashbacks etc), and what health risks if any do they have (like do they cause organ damage directly or only through secondary consequences of addiction). Before that I hadn't even known half these, and it explained to me what kinds of drugs did what.
That way the anti-drug message was believable, like they didn't tell you that something horrible would happen to you if you tried pot, but when a teacher told about how some of his friends who used pot frequently over years changed in their personality that was taken seriously.
Also while the main message was "don't use drugs" there was also some information about being sensible when using recreational drugs (both legal and illegal), like stressing how important it is to be really sure what you take, mentioning dehydration risks when using party drugs, because the body doesn't notice thirst like when sober... and stuff like that. Just like they told you to drink responsible while pointing out the risks of alcohol abuse and addiction (here the legal drinking age for beer is 16, only beverages with more alcohol are restricted to over 18, so it was perfectly legal and expected for students in their final two high school years to drink alcohol if they wanted to).
I guess I liked that it didn't have the somewhat counterintuitive message of so many campaigns that seems to be "Say no. Something horrible will happen to you if you use drugs only once! You will die!" Even I found those ridiculous, and that though personally I'm rather anti-drugs, so much so that I never tried any, and don't even drink anything. (I've always been scared of substances messing with my brain and with alcohol also scared of addiction because of family history.)
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Date: 2004-03-08 04:09 pm (UTC)I liked our drug prevention in school though, it was very non-alarmist but gave you the facts. Like we got these very long lists of banned substances and their various street names and in what forms they would appear when sold, and a somewhat shorter list of legal substances that are (ab)used as drugs, and then what long and short term effects they have (are they physically addictive or only psychologically, how high are their addictive properties, are they stimulants, sedatives, halucinogens..., do they have the potential for effects like flashbacks etc), and what health risks if any do they have (like do they cause organ damage directly or only through secondary consequences of addiction). Before that I hadn't even known half these, and it explained to me what kinds of drugs did what.
That way the anti-drug message was believable, like they didn't tell you that something horrible would happen to you if you tried pot, but when a teacher told about how some of his friends who used pot frequently over years changed in their personality that was taken seriously.
Also while the main message was "don't use drugs" there was also some information about being sensible when using recreational drugs (both legal and illegal), like stressing how important it is to be really sure what you take, mentioning dehydration risks when using party drugs, because the body doesn't notice thirst like when sober... and stuff like that. Just like they told you to drink responsible while pointing out the risks of alcohol abuse and addiction (here the legal drinking age for beer is 16, only beverages with more alcohol are restricted to over 18, so it was perfectly legal and expected for students in their final two high school years to drink alcohol if they wanted to).
I guess I liked that it didn't have the somewhat counterintuitive message of so many campaigns that seems to be "Say no. Something horrible will happen to you if you use drugs only once! You will die!" Even I found those ridiculous, and that though personally I'm rather anti-drugs, so much so that I never tried any, and don't even drink anything. (I've always been scared of substances messing with my brain and with alcohol also scared of addiction because of family history.)