About five years ago now, I read an article in Rolling Stone called "Plague in the Heartland" about crystal meth in the Plains states. It's a plague that has continued to get worse and worse, being chronicled in The Enquirer as a problem in the Cincinnati area.Recently I came upon a terrifying series of advertisements from the Montana Meth Project.
I can honestly say that the full extent of my drug use in my lifetime has been limited to alcohol - and that's been pretty limited - and one second-hand smoke encounter in Vienna where my traveling companions had to point out after the fact that I wasn't exactly acting myself. But good lord, if I were going to try a drug, I certainly wouldn't pick one that makes me look like any of these folks.
I'd be curious to see, however, how much of an effect any of the advertising ("Just Say No", Stand, or the What's Your Anti-Drug) campaigns aimed at stamping out drug use actually have. I'm sure that somewhere along the way some of the grants have had to prove that they're having an effect, but I've never seen that research.
In an entirely unrelated note, guess whose alma matter is the 10th best liberal arts college in the US?
1 comment:
These adds are incredible but I still don't believe that fear is the best way to change behavior. So I think that to this end these ads do more harm than good because they are a band aid so WE don't have to to think harder about the bigger and much more important issues.
The problem is getting poor kids(who can't afford other sexier cooler drugs) to do something else.
Let's not kid ourselves. Prescription drug abuse by the educated middle and upper classes are MUCH more prevalent.
Why doesn't prescription drug abuse get a virulent ad campaign? Easy...educated people in the middle and upper classes don't become ugly zombies with their drugs. Hell they go to college and become the coolest study buddies around and party goers around.
The line with meth will be crossed when we make serious and drastic efforts to close the income and education gaps.
Meth isn't something anyone really prefers to do. It's a last resort much like the other last resorts that fall at the feet of the poor and undereducated such as crime et. al...
"Just Say No" didn't work because people aren't stupid. And they don't like to be told that they are so behind dramatic billion dollar campaigns run by people (politicians, cops, rich people) that they don't trust anyway.
You wanna lower meth use NOW? Make cannabis legal and regulated. You wanna lower it further NOW? Make cocaine legal and regulated. You wanna lower it for real for the future? Fix the income and education gaps.
You wanna stop it? You can't.
;-)
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