Quote:
Originally posted by Cloud9
Kids are ALREADY jaded with the antidrug propoganda movement, hello have you been listening to anything we've been saying. Our generation is a product of those programs, and it's not a very successful outcome.
The reason I point out the similarities between effects of pot and alchohol that are shown in the commercials is this: If I can make the connection, and YOU can make the connection, then kids can make it as well. Don't you understand, it makes you look like a hypocrite, and that's what kids hate most.
Just because people remember antidrug programs does not mean they "worked." I really don't understand that rationale, there are plenty of things I remember being told long ago that I don't follow now. If someone remembers that what they were told was a pack of bs, the reaction is to rebell against that and do what they've been told not to for so long. It's really not smart to underestimate children, because even if they don't understand now, they will grow up one day and put two and two together. So make sure you're really teaching them the right information.
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Thank you, that was what I was trying to say.
I grew up in a world where we were fed "information" along the lines of these commercials in every anti-drug program we were made to take. We were constantly told that drugs will ruin your life. I'm not debating that drugs CAN ruin your life. But there are (AT LEAST -- because again, the numbers come from a government-conducted survey) twenty million people in the United States that smoke marijuana at least once a year, 6 million that smoke it on a weekly basis, 3 million that smoke it everyday -- and as far as I can tell, they're not causing widespread harm. I think it's fairly evident that not all of them are dying, killing people or getting pregnant. (And as I posted before, probably next to none of them are aiding terrorism, unless they also use cocaine or heroin in addition to their marijuana, and that's another whole issue entirely.)
I can tell you with complete certainty that because of DARE and similar propaganda techniques not unlike these commercials, I am jaded with the anti-drug movement. I do not know a single one of my friends who doesn't feel the same, even those who (like me) have chosen not to use drugs. I can't speak for every single member of my generation, but I have talked to people across the United States who went through similar programs, and not a single one says that DARE was an effective approach to anti-drug education. I'm sure there are those out there that feel that way. However, judging from what I've seen there aren't a whole lot of them.
I don't know how old those of you who are debating the other side are, but from what I've seen of your posts, most (all?) of you are old enough that you never went through DARE or the programs that imitated it. Unless you've been through it, I don't think you know what kind of techniques were used in them -- and as far as I can remember, they were very similar to brainwashing. My parents almost threatened to pull my sister out of DARE when she went through it four years after I did because they did not agree with the methods being used in the program. They were not the only parents to feel this way; in fact, DARE was discontinued at that school the year after my sister went through. I believe they use a different method of anti-drug education now.
I'm not disagreeing with you that there needs to be drug education in schools. I even agree that anti-marijuana commercials on TV are a good idea. But the way both programs are being carried out right now leaves a lot to be desired, and -- take it from somebody who's not too far from the target demographic of these commercials -- these commercials will alienate and disillusion many more teenagers than they help.
A much better approach would be to enlist teenagers themselves to help create and script these commercials. Teenagers can detect BS a mile away, and watching a middle-aged businessman's interpretation of what teenagers do, how they speak, and what their motives for using drugs or not using drugs just makes them laugh. The majority of today's teenagers do not take these commercials seriously -- the people who are producing these ads need to do a major rethinking of this if they actually want these ads to affect the majority of today's teenagers.