RED RIBBON WEEK MEANS SAYING NO TO LEGAL DRUGS, TOO

We see the advertisements on television telling young people that a mind is
a terrible thing to waste. We experience our taxes increasing with the
governmental call to curtail the flow of illegal drug trafficking. We rally
as supporters of public-school programs designed to educate and warn
students of the hazards of drug use during Red Ribbon Week with the cry of
"Say no to drugs."

Mixed messages

We fear the possibility and then react with alarm at finding out that our
child has smoked marijuana. Now, I am not at all minimizing this parental
concern. Nor am I an advocate of any illicit drug. However, I feel an
incredible burden to speak the truth and expose the hypocrisy of our
cultural pharmacological mixed messages. While we speak appropriate
condemnation when the profiteers are Colombian drug lords or gangster youth
in our neighborhood parks, we seem to march with our children as silent
lemmings toward the cliffs of our own demise when the drugs being consumed
are those lining our grocery store shelves or dispensed by those in white
jackets on official prescription pads while record pharmaceutical company
profits soar.

What is the difference between a good drug and a bad drug when there are 10
times as many people who die from legally sanctioned drugs compared with
the illegal variety? There can be a place for some medication use in crisis
situations, but the "drugs are the answer to nearly everything you feel
that is unpleasant and everything that ails you" message is so much more
prevalent than "Say no to drugs," even though it is not stated so directly.
This has become especially true today as drug companies blanket the media
with billions of dollars of prescription-drug ads. This is insidiously
increasing the pro-drug message, as well as driving consumers to pressure
doctors for the latest miracle drugs.

What's wrong?

Why the supposed need for so much pharmacological manipulation of ours and
our children's body chemistry? Is there truly that much wrong with us to
make this much drug use is necessary? Even if this were so, if we were to
better understand the truly miraculous nature of our bodies and their
self-healing potential, would it make this much drug use wise? Is it
correcting the causes of our health problems or merely modifying our
symptoms and blocking our warning messages while driving the conditions
deeper within us?

The nervous system is responsible for coordinating all natural
self-regulation and healing. I have been a practicing doctor of
chiropractic for nearly 18 years. I have worked with thousands and read of
hundreds of thousands of people, who when the spinal cause of nervous sytem
disturbance was located and regularly corrected, their sicknesses
diminished or resolved, their health and vitality improved and their need
for drugs of any variety were eliminated or markedly diminished.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
earlier this year stated that "the use of antidepressants like Prozac and
stimulants like Ritalin in 2-to-4-year olds in the United States more than
doubled between 1991 and 1995 to at least 150,000." Is this to be accepted
as necessary and normal? How far will this go?

Disturbing phenomena

I am appalled and believe that this is one of the most disturbing phenomena
of our day. We are chemically manipulating the minds and bodies of our
children with powerful drugs that have not been adequately evaluated for
safety and efficacy in young children.

If we provide pain relievers every time our children hurt, cold remedies
and antibiotics for every minor infection and behavior-or emotion-modifying
drugs rather than addressing the causes of our imbalances, what kind of
messages do we give as our children become teen-agers and young adults?

Is it not a slippery slope which teaches young people that anytime life
disappoints them (for example, they don't make the cheerleading squad,
their girlfriends break up with them, they lose the big game) that there is
a way to feel better now, as with alcohol, marijuana or cocaine? Should we
be surprised?

Teach your children the real meaning of "say no to drugs" by teaching them
to trust their inborn self-healing ability. Train them to seek out and
correct the causes of their disturbances of health and joy, rather than
avoiding the real issues by masking them with drugs.