TELLING THE TRUTH BEST DETERRENT FOR DRUGS

Ever since I started school, I knew that the worst thing that could
possibly be done by a person must be to do drugs.

This conclusion was simple after I saw that the school's efforts to combat
drug abuse took precedence over anything and everything. Counselors
repeatedly interrupted class to warn of the dangers of smoking pot or how
cocaine can ruin your life. A policeman came regularly to show us how
efficiently he and his trained dog could detect us if we had drugs. We had
D.A.R.E., we had Red Ribbon Week, we had Life Guides, we had contests.

In a time when the school wouldn't admit that there was an absolute right
or wrong, there was one exception. Drugs were the ultimate evil. It got to
the point where it wasn't teaching anymore; it was indoctrination.

Assemblies were never so you could hear the facts and decide how you felt
about drugs. You were told all of that. I was taught to hate drugs before I
knew why I should.

The message was never, "Think about the consequences before you use drugs."
It has always been, "Don't use drugs. Why? Because we say so."

No one ever calmly explained drugs and then left it alone. The issue was
hammered in again and again as if we were too dumb to get the message the
first five times. We learned insipid slogans, we wore ribbons, we made posters.

Not only did it become insulting to your intelligence, but drug lecturers
began to get as much attention as flight attendants issuing airplane safety
instructions. When was the last time that any group of people listened
intently to the same message over and over?

As it wore on, it was easy to see that this war on drugs was doomed. I
watched TV. I knew that teenagers were expected to become rebellious and to
disrespect the taboos of past generations merely for shock value. I just
wondered why no one else seemed to know it.

One of the most effective things ever accomplished by the school system was
to give drugs more shock value than anything else known to man. It did come
across that everyone wasn't doing drugs, but this made it the ideal opening
for individuality and rebellion against the norm. What's more, teens found
out that their brains didn't fry like an egg the first time they used pot.
Adolescents saw that although they never used drugs, that didn't
automatically make them smart, or rich, or popular as the drug-free
lifestyle had been portrayed.

I thought back to a poster contest in the fifth grade that was won by a
portrayal of a man as he won the race in his gleaming convertible while
cash poured from the back seat -- all because he stayed drug-free.

It became hard to distinguish if everything that was said about drugs was
as much a lie as some of it had shown to be, especially as it came from the
generation that brought us hippies, the pioneers of counter-culture.

It's the drug industry, the ones who are supposedly lying to you, who seem
to have the real truth.

It's the drug dealers who have the cars, the money and the women.

The drug addicts are the group that will accept you no matter what your
standing in society.

Drugs get you high. That's all that was ever promised, and they deliver.
Now, I've never used drugs nor do I ever intend to. I think people should
learn about drugs. But that's it. No promises for the future, no threats,
no prizes.

I know there are a lot of well-meaning teachers and administrators who have
nothing but the best of intentions when they institute anti-drug programs.

But when anyone over-inflates the dangers of drugs or even the merits of
staying off them, it's a lie. Kids aren't stupid, but they are stubborn.
They know the risks and they know the illegality. You can preach forever,
but there will always be those who ignore the consequences and choose the
cheap high.

This is America, where you can be bent on destruction if you choose to be.
All that can be done is to tell the truth and leave it alone.