METH CAMPAIGN NOT GRAPHIC ENOUGH TO DO ANY GOOD

Talk to your kids about crystal meth, or at least that's what the
Ministry of Health is telling you. With that kind of approach, the
province isn't doing nearly enough for a situation that is so
potentially devastating.

The campaign the provincial government is running focuses on
prevention, urging parents to speak to their kids about the effects
of this harmful drug. Victoria is also running an ad and hosting a
website (www.no2meth.ca) that offers advice and provides facts.

Many of you have probably seen the ad already. It follows a boy from
birth until his teens, using faux family films. In the end, it has
him plugged into his iPod, watching TV, while his parents go out for dinner.

The ad is so ambiguous, it's anybody's guess what it is trying to
say. Is your little Poopsie doing drugs when you leave? Should you
nurture your relationship with your child the way you do your
marriage? Do kids grow up too fast? Are iPods the root of all evil?

The ad is so wishy-washy it's as though even the producers are scared
to speak frankly about the subject. Apparently, the ad is supposed to
promote a parent-child dialogue.

The ad has no impact on the audience; it doesn't drive home the
extremely harmful and gross effects meth can have on the user and their family.

If you go to the website, you can see for yourself how pathetic and
ineffective the ad is. Either the ministry is really out of touch or
it's choosing to dance around a deadly issue.

The website also has lesson plans made available for teachers, but
only for grades 6 through 10. Wouldn't it make more sense to make
children aware as young as possible? And keep reinforcing it as long
as peer pressure is around, which could very well follow through to Grade 12.

The site also includes "info bites, games, and activities" for teens,
but once explored, the content is disappointing. There are memory
games, sudokus and word searches. There is also a calculator that
allows kids to see what kinds of things they could buy with the money
they might otherwise spend on drugs.

How many teens would choose a word search over going out on a
Saturday night? How many kids with big drug budgets actually earn
their money by working hard?

I've never tried crystal meth, but I do know where I could buy it if
I ever wanted to. It's available in our community. This fact alone
should really be looked at. Although there have been meth forums, and
coverage in local papers, the dangers of it need to be advertised
both in school and at home.

Sure, it's easier to say no to meth if the decision has been
pre-determined and there is an open dialogue at home. But in order
for that to happen, everyone has to see the effects it has on real
people, not phony actors.

They have to see - graphically and realistically - how it tears
people apart, mentally and physically. They have to see the side of
it that makes you paranoid, restless and hostile, not just the side
that lets you party all night.

The Ministry of Health shouldn't be afraid to spend our tax dollars
on a hard and ugly depiction of meth. Otherwise, its efforts - and
our money - are wasted.