In the United States, just about every school aged child is forced to sit through a plethora of anti-drug classes and presentations. These classes are deeply flawed and peddle little more than lies and half-truths. The goal of these classes is to prevent drug use and thus the "harm" associated with it but their method does far more damage than good and, in fact, increase the potential for harm.
The most important thing a person can do before trying a drug is educate themselves on its effects, potential risks and rewards. We know that these classes do not prevent drug use and, as a result of their dishonesty, the kids go on to try various drugs without the valuable safety information that they need. The problem is that these classes base their "lessons" on the false premise that all drug use is bad. This prevents them from teaching things like testing for purity which could be life saving in some cases; the students never learn they should only buy from trusted sources or that they should only use certain drugs in certain places. They, instead, try to scare the students (a tactic that does not work) and, in doing so, they rob them of the knowledge to make informed decisions.
These classes use lies to accomplish their goal and, in the process, they destroy their own credibility which discredits everything they teach and leads kids and teens to make bad decisions. These "educators" tell young people things like "marijuana is addictive," "people smoke LSD," and "psychedelics will cause permanent madness" (I was told all of these things when I was in school). The idea is that it is okay to lie if it stops people from using drugs but this is false. We know that these classes do not stop drug use. Further, these kids go on to discover that marijuana doesn't turn them into addicts and that the LSD that they didn't smoke did not drive them insane. They will then, naturally, assume that everything they were told about drugs was a lie and they may go on to do things that actually carry real dangers as a result. This is how overdoses happen, this is how people get addicted to crack and it is the fault of their poor education. If one wants to reduce the potential for harm from drug use, they must be honest. They must tell these kids that marijuana and mushrooms probably won't hurt them but heroin might, they must treat them like people who can make their own decisions (because they are), and teach them to understand the risks before they choose to do anything (drugs or otherwise). If you prove yourself to be a lair once, no one will ever believe you again.
I, for the record, think all drugs should be legal even though I would discourage people from using many of them (cannabis and psychedelics and a few other things are fine, in my opinion, but I have met real crackheads and theirs does not seem like it would be a fun lifestyle). However, how one feels about drug use should not matter in regards to this issue. There is good reason for everyone to support teaching accurate information about drugs. If you think all drugs are great for everyone, then you should want people to understand their potential benefits. If, on the other hand, you hate drugs and want to make sure no one is harmed by them, you should want to do the thing that reduces their harm the most. As with most things in life, the majority of people fall somewhere in the middle.
The poet, Milton, once wrote (I am paraphrasing, badly) that Truth is strong next to the Almighty and that she grapples with Falsehood. This is Milton's flowery way of saying that lies cannot stand before the truth. If our society insists on teaching children about drugs, then they must embrace the truth or be doomed to watch as their lies are slain by it and the children fall as casualties of their battle.
Peace.
This was part of a continuing series of brief posts that are intended to highlight some of the dumber aspects of the drug war. If you liked this post feel free to check out my page for more similar content.
With the exception of the first (which is my own photograph), all the images in this post are taken from the free image website unsplash.com.