Young children are taught to make sure they do not look in their home’s “INSERT A HOUSEHOLD LOCATION HERE” for “INSERT COMMON ABUSE-ABLE HOUSEHOLD MATERIAL HERE” of the brand “INSERT COMMON BRAND NAME HERE” and definitely not to “INSERT METHOD OF ABUSING SAID-SUBSTANCE HERE” as this would get them really, really high.
I remember my former school’s (the high school in my town had been rated #1 high school in America until a few years ago when we shifted in the direction of #1 “high”school) hallways showing very obvious brands of glues, cleaning products, and other household items, describing how they should most definitely not be soaked into rags and subsequently inhaled because that amazing euphoria that they would cause us to feel would not be worth the eventual brain damage. We were taught to be sure not to take five pills of that medication we were prescribed after we broke our arm or we may feel much too nice, we could even get addicted.
Sure, take a curious, non-fully developed adolescent mind, add the false sense of invincibility that comes hand-in-hand that age, teach it how to experience extremely intense euphoria, being sure of course to explain the long-term risks – seeing as children in elementary and middle school love to plan ahead, and expect them to take special care not to get very high, euphoric, happy, not to develop a sense of extreme well-being, feeling problem-free. What could possibly go wrong? What teen would desire that?
Setting aside the fact that children should not be conditioned about the “evils” of drugs in elementary school, but instead taught harm-reduction techniques once they reach an age where they might naturally consider trying a new drug, the methods used in this conditioning are simply idiotic.
Children are taught that marijuana is as dangerous a drug as heroin. That both are federally catorgorized as Schedule I narcotics. What does a young mind then think of the safety of heroin when they see that everyone around them is smoking pot and in perfect health? The irony of the “Gateway Drug” theory is that the only gate is the one constructed, figuratively speaking, by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Not to mention prescribing pharmaceutical speed (Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, etc) to half the nation (myself included). Recent studies show that 6% of children prescribed Ritalin develop a psychosis or schizophrenia, which hopefully subsides a couple years after they are taken off the medication.
The United States has been fighting a “War on Drugs” for a very long time, harming children and adults committing victimless crimes. The D.A.R.E. (Drug Awareness and Resistance Education) program to be more precise has been counter-productively teaching kids how EXACTLY not to use drugs. Studies have shown that the D.A.R.E. program does nothing to prevent kids from using drugs in their lives, with the not-surprising exception of causing a bump in drug use right after the program. Kids curiosity begins to peak about drugs they didn’t even know existed, and about the concept of getting “high.”
If kids are taught that drugs are all evil, then discover that a large part of that information was complete BS, they will assume that all of it was misinformative crap. That all drugs are actually safe to use. Why not smoke some of the crystal meth from the educational video shown in class about how easy it is to cook-up methamphetamine. As ludicrous as it sounds these video’s are shown with two of the obviously identifiable ingredients remaining unnamed, ambiguously labeled A and B, so as to prevent the kids from trying this at home.
It’s not like kids have access to a magical global source of information on their computers and cell phones that they can use to fill in the blank spots in their drug making education.
While kids are taught the dangers of alcohol and tobacco, they are also taught, that while age-restricted, they are legal. What message will kids really take away about their safety (tobacco killing more people a year than every drug, murder, suicide, and car crash combined) in comparison to substances like marijuana which can kill you and make you go insane with a single puff?
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