Anti Drug Propaganda

I meant to blog about this anti drug spot weeks ago, but just never got the chance. (View the actual spot here- just click on the one labelled "the conversation."

I don't get it - I mean, I do get it, but I suppose I'm just irritated with more anti-drug propaganda that equates use with abuse. I find this "Above the Influence" campaign particularly irritating. It's not just about drugs, but about sex, and anything else that might be fun. The campaign casts itself as being about choosing your own path, but somehow your own choices can never involve having sex or smoking pot.

Then there's this page here, devoted to "comebacks." When I was in 6th grade, we called this the "suggest another activity" strategy. So when a peer asked you to smoke pot you could say, "nah, let's not do that- why don't we go to the opera with my mom instead." In reality, this is all just a variation on Nancy Regan's much maligned "Just Say No!" campaign.

This all just drives me nuts because it insults the intelligence of everyone, adults and kids. It just seems insane to me that as sophisticated as we are today, we still can't separate drug use from drug abuse and we still can't figure out that more often than not real drug abuse is a symptom of other personal problems, not the cause of personal problems in the first place.