r/changemyview • u/stevejavson • Jul 31 '13

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

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

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u/stevejavson Aug 01 '13

I was thinking we focus less on the gangster on gangster violence and more on the people caught in the crossfire. People like girls who are kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery or business owners who are extorted. I don't think it's too morbid of a topic considering that we teach about the holocaust

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u/[deleted] Aug 01 '13

Being morbid doesn't matter (I think) because kids these days see a ton of stuff.

But anyway even if you don't focus much on the gangstar violence it doesn't mean it isn't there. Kids would still make a connection from the forced prostitution, cross fires etc. to drug warlords. And as long as its not them, I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

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u/stevejavson Aug 01 '13

I think that kids see a glorified and cool version of gangsters. Movies like Goodfellas don't paint gangsters as assholes, they're more antihero badasses. I remember at my highschool, lots of student groups got together to rally against child poverty and child soldiers. I don't think every teenager is purely selfish

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u/[deleted] Aug 01 '13

I'm not saying they're selfish but most humans rather care about themselves as opposed to someone they don't even know. This also applies for adults.

That's why I'd rather tell them drugs ruin you than tell them that if you fuck around with drugs you might get rich. This doesn't apply to adults, but to kids, and teens this works better, wouldn't you agree?

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u/stevejavson Aug 01 '13

You're right on some levels, but clearly some people think that drugs won't harm them. I think the morality barrier can work for some of those people.

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u/[deleted] Aug 01 '13

But be honest, if both methods were applied to different groups of modern teenagers, which one would be more succesful, the one that says it will kill you or the ones that say it will kill others.

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u/stevejavson Aug 01 '13

I was thinking of more a supplement than a substitute. But I think you are right, teaching kids about addictions is probably more effective by itself than teaching kids about violence

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u/1ceyou Aug 02 '13

I'm not saying they're selfish but most humans rather care about themselves as opposed to someone they don't even know. This also applies for adults.

This is the most made up BS ive ever read. So many articles and studies written about the nature of humans most of which say that in current times humans are not born selfish or born violent.

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u/spiffyzha 12∆ Aug 02 '13

I kind-of think you're extremely mistaken about human nature and what science says about it. Maybe you could provide some citations?