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From: nose@nbires.UUCP (Steve Dunn)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Drug Abuse - True Problem or Media Hype?
Message-ID: <901@nbires.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Sep-86 12:32:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: nbires.901
Posted: Wed Sep 24 12:32:06 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Sep-86 23:34:25 EDT
References: <720@scc.UUCP>
Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO
Lines: 34
Summary: Drug education - Honesty required

<20756@rochester.ARPA> <463@epimass.UUCP> <21005@rochester.ARPA>

[This response to an article in net.med was posted to talk.politics
because I think the discussion is more relevent to politics than to 
medicine]

In article <21005@rochester.ARPA>, ray@rochester.ARPA (Ray Frank) writes:
>Scare tatics (reality tatics) are made public not to rid someone of drugs
>but  to hopefully prevent someone from becoming addicted in the first
>place.  It is called education.  The facts about drug use should be made
>readily  available to everyone, whether through news reporting or through
>the installion of anti-drug literature throughout the nation's school
>system.

I agree with the notion that there should be drug education so that people
are informed about the very real dangers of drugs. For drug education to
work it must be percieved by the target audience as containing honestly
presented factual information. I say this because there is a tendancy for
the propoganda that I've heard lately to grossly exaggerate the dangers.
Some of the anti-drug radio commercials, Reagan's recent speech etc seem to
imply that anyone who uses any illegal drug even once will ruin thier lives
forever.  This simply is not the case and I think people hearing such
messages who are inclined to take drugs will dismiss them as just so much
hooey. Much more specific messages that explain say how easy it is to
overdose on freebased coke or how easy it is to become addicted to heroin
might actually have an effect on people's behavior. I know that in my own
case, evidence about increased mortality due to cigarette smoking was the
thing prevented me from taking up that habit. The information about smoking
and health was presented in such a way that I didn't feel that anyone was
trying to exaggerate and in such a way that I realised that it was backed up
by real scientific fact. The comparison between this and today's anti-drug
propoganda is a sorry one indeed.

            -Steve "Piss bottles for God and Country" Dunn