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From: prs@oliveb.UUCP (Phil Stephens)
Newsgroups: net.med,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Why don't people take drugs?
Message-ID: <86@oliveb.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Oct-86 16:35:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: oliveb.86
Posted: Tue Oct  7 16:35:13 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Oct-86 02:04:56 EDT
References: <3707@hplabsb.UUCP> <467@cci632.UUCP>
Reply-To: prs@oliven.UUCP (Philip Stephens)
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 38
Xref: watmath net.med:5098 talk.politics.misc:572

In article <467@cci632.UUCP> rb@ccird2.UUCP (Rex Ballard) writes:
>In article <3707@hplabsb.UUCP> piety@hplabsb.UUCP (Bob Piety) writes:
>>Now look around at the people you know who DON'T use drugs.  WHY don't they
>>use them?  Because they can't get them?  Because they can't afford them?
>>NO!!!  Most people don't use drugs because they understand the risks of taking
>>them.
>
>Even more fundamental than that.  Those who don't use drugs usually
>don't because they have some other area in which they prefer to gain
>self-esteem.  

Yes.  Scare stories don't help, criminalization doesn't help much and has 
bad side effects, and crackdowns on one drug lead to users doing worse 
things or just trying even harder.  For real prevention, self esteem works.  
Not an easy thing to actually implement, you can't force a teenager to have 
it, you can't give it to yourself overnight, and it is not a handle for 
criminal politicians to incite/distract the public.  Not politically 
expedient for Runold Raygun.  But most other approaches are either "slapping 
a bandaid on gangrene" or "bleeding an anemic".

One of my social activities happens to have several AA members, and I have 
come to deeply respect their "process" and their values.  You mention being 
in a program with similar values, and I am glad that it is getting mentioned 
here.  Most of the verbage on this subject, including my own, is peripheral; 
you have cut right to the heart of the matter: physical addiction is real, 
but secondary; emotional predisposition is the real problem.  And the heart 
of that, in turn, is self-esteem.  Thank you for cutting through the (our) 
bullshit.

(I'm still very concerned about abusive drug-testing of employees, but I 
want to emphasize that the heart of the matter is still what should be 
done *instead* of RR's drug war).

I trust no-one takes this as putting words in Rex's mouth.  Just dashing
this off during lunch, no time to be eloquent or even spell-check!

	- Phil				prs@oliven.UUCP (Phil Stephens)
	 			or:	prs@oliveb.UUCP