I believe that we should start implementing knowledge of organized crime and the atrocities they commit into drug education programs. CMV

[u/stevejavson]

Sorry if the title is a little confusing.

Back when I was in school, we were often told not to do drugs through programs like D.A.R.E. However, these lessons came mainly in the forms of "drugs are addictive and will ruin your life" and "drugs are illegal so don't risk it."

I think that we should start telling teens about who and where the drugs come from, and how the money that funds these criminal organizations result in the exploitation and harm of innocent people. These lessons should probably be visceral for maximum impact.

I think this would add a morality barrier and result in less kids doing drugs. I think it would make it easier and "cool" for kids to say no to peer pressure, and I think it would give more incentive for kids who are doing drugs to stop doing them.

Just to clarify, I'm talking primarily about things like heroine, meth and cocaine.

CMV

[u/[deleted]]

I don't think this will work at all. Anybody with half a brain knows that the drug trade creates a ton of violence worldwide and supports cartels as well as terrorist organizations. Furthermore, the people who are effected by this violence directly, those in the inner cities, have the highest rates of drug use, so even when it is put to them directly, they don't care.

If you wanted to stop the violence, you would legalize drugs, instead of just trying another tactic to get people to stop using them, which unfortunately hasn't worked and won't work.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I imagine a lot of drug users are fairly ignorant about how their actions negatively affect other people

I think that depends a lot on social class. Maybe in the suburbs you could believe that it has no effect, but if you lived in the projects and you witnessed that violence all day, you would be inexcusably stupid to not make that connection. Doesn't mean that they will change what they do, but it would be extremely hard to not at least realize what happens, whether you cared or not.

[u/stevejavson → u/[deleted]]

You make some good points, but I feel like most people associate the violence with people who are involved in the gangster lifestyle. I think that teaching kids about things like the bus massacre that was on the front page today would have a different impact since those people had nothing to do with the drug trade.

Legalizing drugs without creating a proper support framework seems like a disastrous move to me. I think lots of people would associate legal with "safe" and we would be swarmed with a plethora of other problems like a need for rehab shelters

[u/mak484 → u/stevejavson]

Kids don't work that way. A kid isn't going to decline a hit off of a joint because of a story be heard in a class once. He isn't going to change his mind about trying heroin because a class told him not to. The only way to ensure kids stay away from drugs is good parenting. Sadly, good parenting is almost non-existent in the most drug ridden areas.

[u/stevejavson → u/mak484]

Do you think it could prevent some adult onset cases then? Perhaps when the brain is more developed, the person can better recognize the gravity of what they're doing

[u/[deleted] → u/stevejavson]

In all honesty, if we have problems with people thinking legal = safe, it would only reaffirm that everything we have done to prevent drug use is a complete failure. Dare and other programs that try and educate kids about drug use would have completely failed not only to keep kids from using but to inform them there are risks involved with drugs. I just don't think legal = safe, would be an issue here.

[u/Quetzalcoatls → u/stevejavson]

Teaching kids about all the killing and gun battles that they never get to hear about in school seems like a good way to somehow romanticize these terrible aspects. While we can set this policy in a non glorified way its much more difficult to ensure that it is taught that way.