Quote:
Originally posted by cash78mere
wow. you obviously have no experience with kids. and if you do, i dread what you tell or teach them.
kids are KIDS. they are impressionable and need to learn facts so they can make their own decisions later in life. that is the key. when they are OLDER is when they can sort out the facts for themselves.
and to whoever asked ages. i'll be 25 in 2 weeks. i went through DARE. never liked the whole acting out part of it, but whatever.
if you guys honestly think that DARE, a program designed to educate kids and scare them of consequences, will make kids pro-drugs in the future are just unbelievable.
please don't ever have children. and if you do, be afraid for their welfare.
an adult needs different messages than a child.
go smoke all the pot you want. i don't give a damn. but i will EDUCATE my kids of what CAN happen if they do drugs. educating them will not make them want to do drugs. that is faulty logic
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Cloud9 mentioned at the beginning of this topic that she has never smoked pot and doesn't intend to. And if you were referring to me in that blanket statement at the end there, I also mentioned more than once that I have never smoked either, nor do I plan to in the immediate future (as a runner, I have lungs to worry about). If you want your statements to be taken seriously, you should probably be more careful reading others'. Just because someone defends the use of marijuana does not mean they're a pothead, and anybody who equates the two is obviously running out of more effective arguments to make.
Other points:
I have actually worked with kids quite a bit. Fortunately I've never had to do an anti-drug program, and I don't ever plan to. I don't think it would be my calling.
As for teaching kids facts -- YES. Teach them facts. Do not teach them propaganda like what we're seeing in these commercials. "If you smoke marijuana you could aid and abet terrorism" is not a fact. It's not even true. "Marijuana can affect your memory" is a fact. Teach them the ramifications of smoking marijuana, but do not use scare tactics. And please, do not use things that are untrue! That's where the problems come in. If DARE or teachers or commercials teach children that buying marijuana supports terrorism, or that marijuana is psychologically addictive -- whenever kids find out that these are false (and they will, at some point) that's when they stop trusting anti-drug programs or the educators themselves.
Adults and children do need different messages. However, kids are a hell of a lot smarter than you seem to be giving them credit for. If a kid sees an anti-marijuana ad sandwiched between two alcohol ads -- he notices that, and he questions that. Trust me. But I think we've gotten off topic here. When discussing those commercials -- those are aimed at teenagers, from all I can tell. And teenagers DON'T need to be treated like children. If there's one thing that will get them rebelling the fastest, it's treating them like they're younger than they are.
Oh, and
"DARE demonstrated no effect on adolescents' use of alcohol, cigarettes, or inhalants, or on their future intentions to use these substances."
--
http://www.ndsn.org/FEB93/DARE.html
And a more recent article:
http://www.preventionnet.com/files/home46.cfm
Do a search; there are hundreds more articles like these out there.