Lies our drug warriors told us

Reno News and Review ^ | August 24th, 2006 | Dennis Myers

[Louis Foxwell]

We lie because we are incapable of speaking the terrible truth. AA and similar tell it like it is programs are effective because its members have plumbed the depths of depravity and returned. The drug experience is far worse than our paltry deceptions. The truth is so terrible it is unbelievable, so we must embellish.
Children do not try drugs because someone lied about their dangers. They try them because someone lied about the wonders of drugs.

[sean327]

"And, I agree with you. "Drugs are bad". However, this country was founded by folks who realized that we might not all feel the same way. And, therefore, made a bill of rights so that folks such as the Drug Fascists could not legally force their views onto everyone else."

As I said in my previous post, I don't care if you want to do drugs, Just keep it away from me and my family. I will do everything in my power to keep it away from those that I care about. There is no hypocracy in that. As far as I'm concerned, people can stay stoned 24-7 as long as it doesn't affect my family.

[A CA Guy]

This poo-pooing of efforts to explain the devastation of drug abuse is popular among most conspiracy theorists. Dismissing efforts to dissuade children from experimenting with addictive drugs is a fool's errand. Certainly truth telling is critical to believability. For those trapped in a lifetime of addiction, however, no amount of reason will suffice. Nor will hand holding therapies.
Overcoming the attraction of trance inducing drugs is best pursued by debunking myths about such drugs as a means to deep spiritual experience, instant serenity, ecstatic pleasure and their ilk. Those are the lies that kill.

Great post and truthful, for we either approve of the addicting life sucking drugs and get more Americans from children on up addicted, or we continue to fight it and stop what we can through law enforcement, just as we do rape, murder and other horrors.

The pro recreational drug lobby seems to be the same as the gay activists in trying to get their alternate life styles considered a form of normal, but neither will ever be considered so IMO!

[A CA Guy]

The Libertarian platform seems to really have but one plank: We want our pot.

Also as it gets closer to election time, many of them start to do the Democrat party's jobs by trying to debate people to throw away their vote to a third party hole in a protest vote or for some alternative pro-drug candidate.

We'll see what this year brings. Should be interesting reading IMO.

[hosepipe]

Why do they call it DOPE?....

[A CA Guy]

Same as all good fascists. Nazi's did the EXACT same thing.

Nazi's killed people they didn't like, whereas recreational drugs, their dealers and criminal participants would gladly kill anyone... It's far worse...

[zeugma]

As I said in my previous post, I don't care if you want to do drugs, Just keep it away from me and my family. I will do everything in my power to keep it away from those that I care about. There is no hypocracy in that. As far as I'm concerned, people can stay stoned 24-7 as long as it doesn't affect my family.

So then, you'd support the repeal of laws against the use of drugs?  

[Sir Gawain]

Don't give me that "Drug Warrior" crap. I've seen what drugs have done to friends and some of my family. If you want to fry your brain on that crap, that's your call, but as long as I'm breathing, I will tell any, and everyone that drugs are destructive, and they have zero benefit to society, and I will do whatever it takes to keep that crap away from my kids. My kids know I won't tolerate drug use by them. I came home one day and caught my oldest son and some friends in my back yard hitting a bong, they all went to jail that day. Some of you may think that action was overly harsh, but they were warned what the concequence would be if I ever caught them.

Hopefully you don't ingest caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol on a regular basis, lest you be known as a hypocrite.

[sean327]

"So then, you'd support the repeal of laws against the use of drugs?"

I don't care either way. I niether support or oppose legalization. But once again I will defend my family from the stuff. What people do in the privacy of their own home is no business of mine. Just make sure it never reaches my home.

[sean327]

Read my posts again. I don't give a damn if people want to do drugs, just keep the crap away from my kids. Is that such a hard concept for you to comprehend? My philosophy on this is do what ever you want, as long as your actions don't affect my family. How is that hypocritical? How does protecting the people I care about make me a hypocrite?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Great post and truthful, for we either approve of the addicting life sucking drugs and get more Americans from children on up addicted, or we continue to fight it and stop what we can through law enforcement, just as we do rape, murder and other horrors.

Smoking a joint = rape and murder . . . only on a Free Republic Drug War Thread.

How many times have you posted foolish crap like this, A CA Guy?

[TKDietz]

"Lies kill though. When you tell people that marijuana is more evil than it is, and they have friends who don't go blind, drop out of school, or whatever other lies they tell, then kids disbelieve ALL of the genuine harmful effects of harder drugs.

I truly don't understand why we think lying is an effective drug policy. Marijuana can impair some memory functions, make you sluggish, get fat, etc. But that isn't "scary" enough for some folks. So we embellish, and we lose the trust of the kids when we tell them what long term heroin, ecstacy use can do to them because they know already that we lie."

Good post. I'm a public defender in a small town and part of what I do is represent juveniles who get in trouble. If you can get these kids really talking you hear a lot of discounting just about everything negative about drugs as lies told to them by authority figures. The problem is that authority figures do lie to kids about drugs, or at least exaggerate like crazy, and that destroys credibility. If they can't believe what authority figures are telling them, they're likely to turn to the pro-drug nonsense their peers are telling them.

There is no need to exaggerate the negative aspects of drug use. The truth is bad enough. No, you won't get addicted the first time you try meth or any other drug, but the only way to be sure you'll never get addicted is to never try this stuff in the first place. Not everyone will get hooked, but a lot of people will and they certainly aren't always people who look or act like people you think might be the ones who get addicted. The fact is that you can't tell who will get addicted. No one thinks it will happen to them, or they wouldn't mess with the stuff. But it does happen to substantial numbers of people who mess with these substances and really screws up their lives. A lot of these people these kids know who are messing with drugs are already addicted or well on their way but it just hasn't become evident yet.

I'll see these drug addicts later when they come to me in trouble, often over and over again. I'll see them when they are kids feeling invincible thinking they'll never get hooked, and I'll see them later in life when they know good and well they are hooked and they're struggling with a lifelong addiction. a lot will eventually quit for good, but not before going through many backslides and an awful lot of trouble over the years. They ruin their lives, hurt people around them. They'll come in my office balling their eyes out because they can't leave it alone. They'll say all they need is help, but none of that works unless they make it work and most won't stick to it, at least not the first, or second, or even third time they get treatment. It's a very sad and frustrating thing to watch. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people really do well and thought they had were going to come out fine only to watch them fall back into it. It's extremely frustrating.

I think people are for the most part well intentioned when they try to scare kids away from drugs through exaggerations and even "little white lies." A lot who engage in this practice don't even know they are doing it because they are just parroting nonsense they get from others. I've seen police officers speaking to groups of kids about drugs going straight from materials from the prosecutor's office telling these kids things like that that 95% of them who try meth will get hooked the first time they try it, and that their life expectancy after they start messing with meth is only five years. This is such obvious bull$hit that these teens can see with their own eyes is false. I don't know for sure where the prosecutor's office gets all this crap, although I know a big part of it comes from the DEA who ought to know better. It irks me no end to see this happening because I know these kids are already suspicious of authority figures and when those authority figures feed them lines of obvious b.s. these kids just quit listening and turn to other sources for their information, which unfortunately often means their friends who will feed them full of pro-drug nonsense that is no more true that what the authority figures tell them.

The truth about drugs is bad enough, especially when it comes to the hard stuff. We have to stop with the lies and exaggerations because that tactic too often ends with exactly the opposite of the intended results.

[A CA Guy]

There is lots of death, violence and injuries surrounding recreational drugs in every way, to think otherwise is delusional.

[TChris]

Banning pot wasn't about drugs. "It was about power", -- as libertarians put it.

Yeah, just think of the millions of lives that could have been saved if only pot wasn't banned.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

My philosophy on this is do what ever you want, as long as your actions don't affect my family.

That's perfectly fine and reasonable. I wish you luck.

The trouble, of course, is that many apply that same ethos to the drug problem, but employ a broad interpretation of what constitutes "affects" and "family," as in even the most tangential elements of illicit drug use effects "all of us." And many here tend to play the "my brother's keeper" angle to the hilt.

[A CA Guy]

Passive or direct drug pushing people kill or ruin lives though as they entice children and others into making it sound safe and attractive to get into recreational drugs.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

There is lots of death, violence and injuries surrounding recreational drugs in every way, to think otherwise is delusional.

There was a lot of death, violence, and injury surrounding alcohol when Prohibition forced its sale and distribution to the Black Market, too. But you know this . . . you've been posting to FR Drug War Threas for how long now?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

The truth about drugs is bad enough, especially when it comes to the hard stuff.

Amen to that. Anyone who has an inkling to try heroin should be forced to watch the movie Sid and Nancy, or Trainspotting, and if they still want to shoot up after that, they should walk to the nearest bridge and jump off.

[jmc813]

Did you know that Ronald Reagan called libertarianism the "heart and soul of conservatism"?

[A CA Guy]

Yes you are correct in that you should not abuse alcohol either, because when you do it ends up being as bad as the recreational drugs.

GREAT POINT!