ANTI-DRUG MOVIES ARE A WASTE OF MONEY

It is August 2002, and I found something disturbing on the Internet.

According to drugsense.org the United States government will spend more
than $19 billion on the war on drugs.

This amounts to $609 per second.

Sometimes you have to read it to believe it--and let the rumors prove
themselves to be true.

Also on the site is the number of people arrested for drug offenses this
year alone (1,046,352), and the projected number of people to be
incarcerated for drug offenses this year (236,800).

These are big numbers. They don't teach these in school.

Instead, we get part of what is hopefully the solution--the D.A.R.E.
program, and hundreds of movies and books dedicated to informing kids that
drugs are bad.

From day one in school, we heard the message almost before we even knew
what drugs were. Don't do drugs. Smokers are Jokers. And my personal
favorite as a fourth-grader, don't drink and drive.

Personally, I think D.A.R.E. is a great idea for teaching kids the dangers
of drugs like heroin and crack. The awe of having an armed police officer
standing in front of you is a good experience, too; you learn more than
just the fact that "drugs are bad." You also learn a little bit about the
life of a cop.

My problem is not with the ideas and reasoning behind D.A.R.E., or the
anti-drug part of health class. It's all taught for the good of those
hearing it.

I'm just disgusted by many of the anti-drug movies that are used as aids in
these classes.

If you remember any of these, you know what I'm talking about. Cartoon
characters fit for 4-year-olds run around with frantic gestures, pausing
between capers to shriek "Kids, don't smoke crack!" in front of bemused
students in classrooms everywhere in the country.

The D.A.R.E. icon itself is a golden-maned, tough-looking lion named Daren.
What is this telling us? Sorry, but could someone explain how this is going
to prevent 13-year-olds from drugs? What 13-year-old idolizes a
straight-edge Tweety or Daffy Duck?

That's just one example. Other movies try the more "hip" method,
introducing "cool" characters who we are expected to identify with (which
is actually quite difficult in any case, considering that most of these
movies were made in the late '80s).

These characters typically consist of the short-shorts wearing track star,
the prom queen with the stereotypical '80s haircut, and the kid with a
really nice car.

Each story is very predictable once you've seen it once or twice. In the
midst of a few one liners or "jive" jokes, a drug problem arises. The track
star somehow gets involved with crack smoking (one movie actually has the
crack rocks talk), the prom queen is offered heroin at her friend's party,
and the kid with the car crashes after drinking and driving.

People use these drugs every day, and it's horrible. The thing is, I don't
think these movies are getting the point across well enough. Wouldn't raw
facts, the real numbers and true stories do better?

Corny jokes and clever ideas don't match up with something as frightening
as the fact that heroin, crack, cocaine and other deadly drugs are enough
of a problem in this country that $609 are being spent every second.

The movies currently in use are nothing but continuous jokes set to a goofy
soundtrack. It's hard to tell when the joke stops and the serious material
begins.

The subject of these cinematic flops should focus less on three outdated
individual stories (or the animated antics of a cartoon character), and
instead discuss why people get into drugs. That's something I still don't know.

How about how hard it is to quit? I never saw that in one of those movies,
either.

How about what it can do to a person's savings? The list goes on.

I think the use of movies should be limited as much as possible in health
and D.A.R.E. class. The officer and/or teacher would have much better
results if the TV stayed off and questions could be answered. Movies don't
answer questions--if anything, they might raise them.

The war on drugs is a controversial issue. Some people think we're spending
way too much money on it. I don't know how much money is going to anti-drug
propaganda movies--but I do know that it could be put to another use.