Re: Kids Need Truth...And So Do We

[Robert Hoffmann <escape@alt-escape.com>]

At 07:20 PM 1/25/99 -0800, G M wrote:

>Teens are often confronted with messages about the dangers of drinking
>and driving but how many young people are adequately warned about the
>long term effects of alcohol abuse:  how it literally destroys the
>human body and eventually, slowly and painfully, kills the alcohol
>addict?  Kids hear "Think When You Drink" (the ultimate oxymoron) but
>never "Think BEFORE You Drink".  They hear "Designate a Driver" but
>never "Hey, How About if None of Us Drink to the Point of Not Being
>Able to Function?".  How about a billboard that presents this simple
>message:  "Alcohol Is a Drug"... 

It is hard to impress the average teenager (who is, by definition,
immortal) with a fear of dying.  Back in my teenage years, someone noted
that it's much more effective to convince teenagers that drugs were simply
not cool.  There was a public service commercial on TV about cigarettes
(another product we rarely hear called a DRUG), starring Brooke Shields.
The gist of it was, she said, "Some guy came up to me at a party and he was
smoking a cigarette.  How gross.  Who was he trying to impress?"

Studies showed the commercial to be effective.  The networks (or someone
else, I forget) killed the spots because they weren't "informative."  This,
despite the fact that teenagers didn't respond as much to "information" as
they did to a teen idol.

The teenage years are the rebellious years; by definition, it is hard to
mold the behavior of a teen.  Hurrah for those who, instead of trying to
lecture kids, work to provide alternative activities, such as midnight
basketball and the skate park.  If we don't invest in children, why should
they view our lectures with anything but cynicism?

>If one takes too much cocaine it can kill them.  Drink too many
>cocktails and it can do exactly the same thing.
>And still we insist on using that most confusing term of all "Alcohol
>and Drugs", I assume because if we combined them into the
>all-inclusive (and truthful) word "Drugs" too many of us would then be
>using "drugs" and that would make us feel uncomfortable.

Amen.  I'd really like to see the term "Drugs, including alcohol and
tabacco" instead of "Drugs and Alcohol."  But the illegal drug market does
not have the kind of lobbying budget that the alcohol and cigarette
industries do, so I'm not holding my breath.


Robert Hoffmann                      817 S. Adams
Alt-Escape Adventures                Moscow, ID  83843  USA
http://www.alt-escape.com            Phone: (208) 883-0642
	             Fax:   (208) 883-8545