ALLURE OF THE FORBIDDEN

Did your children know they could get high from household products? That is
one of the messages being portrayed by the glitzy new anti-drug commercial
that campaigns against inhalant abuse.

My work buddies and I were discussing high school and our peers and our own
initiation into the drug culture. One thing we agreed on was that it was
when we found out about drugs (and I include alcohol here) that our interest
and attention became focused. For many kids, the more forbidden something
was, the more of a challenge it was to see if they could get it and
experience it themselves. I think these TV commercials that make a big deal
of illicit drugs will (like the DARE program) focus attention and curiosity.
This is counter to the intent.

But what I also want to say is something that most people do not wish to
understand, and that is that the drug war itself has severely accentuated
our problems. The information is out there for those who wish to examine it.

Thomas Paine said, "No man is prejudiced in favor of a thing knowing it to
be wrong. He is attached to it in the belief of its being right." Perhaps
you believe you are right, but have you got the straight thinking and facts
to verify that?

Larry Nickerson