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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.

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.

"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.

I truly don't understand why we think lying is an effective drug policy.

Unfortunately, most adults tend to underestimate the intelligence of children.

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.

I assume you are not one of the "we" that tells those lies. A kindly word of wisdom/advice. When you use the word "we" -- it dilutes the differentiation you're trying to make clear in your argument. The key is to identify those that lie and those that don't so as to drive a wedge to separate them and their agendas.