Addled by drugs
Editorial comment

QUESTION: How best to express the
dangers of drugs to a young,
fashionconscious audience? Simple: tell
them only that "the majority" of their
peers are busy getting high.

The number of teenagers then prepared to
reject what is so clearly the done thing is
likely to be smaller than you might have
hoped, of course. In your innocence, you
might even find this surprising. If so, you
have no business running a health
education campaign.

At best, the latest poster campaign by
Scotland Against Drugs is another
example of society's failure to grasp the
simple facts about drugs and young
people. Neither psychology nor peer
pressure among teenagers is remotely
understood while the attempt to shock
amounts, instead, almost to an incitement
to abuse.

Besides, who would be shocked, and why?
If the majority of 16year olds have
experimented with drugs they understand
the extent of the phenomenon far better
than any advertising agency. If the
statistic in question, meanwhile, seems
only to confirm that drug use is normal,
public money has been spent to damage
public health. In other words, back to the
drawing board.