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Sam and Friends BookI'm going to get royally reamed for this, but...
While I don't have a problem with educating kids about the dangers of drugs, that's just it. We need to educate kids about the dangers of drugs, and Dare really didn't do that, at least effectively. You have tall tales that initially scare young kids straight, then something happens, they say "we don't care" and they get on them anyway. We have to remember that the 1980's was full of Inspector Gadget style paranoia (best way I could state it... oblivious and focused on the wrong villain) that made things worse with bad legislation and a phoney War on Drugs that just strengthened the cartels and made things more dangerous than needs be. Remember the migrant kids from South America everyone was whining about coming through our boarders last summer? They're escaping the same cartels we essentially created by terrible drug legislation.
Long story short, we need kids to want to avoid the hard drugs when they're adults and try shrinking the cartels' hold and influence that way. Instead of "two stoners cooed their baby" type Urban Legends, we need to handle this the same way we handle suicide prevention. Show them the real consequences, tell them what really happens to their systems with dangerous drugs, and above all tell them that even in their darkest hour, it's not worth it. We keep forgetting that while some think drugs are recreational and fun, much like any other substance a near suicidal level of misery and just not caring directly leads to addiction. And addiction of anything. Food, alcohol, sex... whatever to a dangerous excess that comes from being at a low point and not caring. Because sometimes those low points don't last that long, but addiction lasts forever. That's a serious, nuanced, and mature way to deal with that sort of thing. Not guys in costumes rattling off scripts about how every drug is the same thing and they're all exactly bad.
While I don't have a problem with educating kids about the dangers of drugs, that's just it. We need to educate kids about the dangers of drugs, and Dare really didn't do that, at least effectively. You have tall tales that initially scare young kids straight, then something happens, they say "we don't care" and they get on them anyway. We have to remember that the 1980's was full of Inspector Gadget style paranoia (best way I could state it... oblivious and focused on the wrong villain) that made things worse with bad legislation and a phoney War on Drugs that just strengthened the cartels and made things more dangerous than needs be. Remember the migrant kids from South America everyone was whining about coming through our boarders last summer? They're escaping the same cartels we essentially created by terrible drug legislation.
Long story short, we need kids to want to avoid the hard drugs when they're adults and try shrinking the cartels' hold and influence that way. Instead of "two stoners cooed their baby" type Urban Legends, we need to handle this the same way we handle suicide prevention. Show them the real consequences, tell them what really happens to their systems with dangerous drugs, and above all tell them that even in their darkest hour, it's not worth it. We keep forgetting that while some think drugs are recreational and fun, much like any other substance a near suicidal level of misery and just not caring directly leads to addiction. And addiction of anything. Food, alcohol, sex... whatever to a dangerous excess that comes from being at a low point and not caring. Because sometimes those low points don't last that long, but addiction lasts forever. That's a serious, nuanced, and mature way to deal with that sort of thing. Not guys in costumes rattling off scripts about how every drug is the same thing and they're all exactly bad.