This week at my kids’ elementary school it’s Red Ribbon Week. What does that mean? Well, this week the school presents programs designed to keep the kids from drinking, smoking and doing drugs.
It’s never too young to start, of course, but at the elementary school level, this is a challenging proposition. We’re talking about suburban kids fifth grade and under. Really, how do you get kids whose friends are probably not drinking, smoking and doing drugs to understand how bad these things can be?
The school has an assembly in which a robot talks about taking care of your #1 machine, your body. They also have the kids sign a pledge and they give out some red pencils. Actually, you only get the pencils if you buy them for your kids. I feel like every time I turn around the school is asking me for a check so I didn’t buy the pencils this year because my kids have forests worth of pencils already and to tell you the truth, I don’t know how a pencil is going to convince them not to engage in this self-destructive behavior.
So, on my own, I have come up with what I think is a virtually fool proof way to scare my kids off drinking, smoking and doing drugs. A picture’s worth a thousand words…
…and about 3,000 pencils! (Getty Images)
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Yes, because thats EXACTLY what happens if you ever experiment with drugs. This type of thing will make your children resent you at best if they ever get a clue. At worst it will completely foil your in-home anti drug campaign and discredit you with them. Trust me I’ve been there.
The problem with school anti-drug campaigns is the exposure that a boy of 8 wouldnt get otherwise. Why tell my kid about drugs if he doesn’t know about them in the first place? Why make that one rebellious child want to know first hand why drugs are bad? Drug education is a good idea, but not in young children.
I agree. Why tell an 8 year old about something he hasn’t heard of yet? Suddenly there’s this… thing. called… “drugs?” and its…. GOING TO KILL YOU!
This is how elemetary drug education sounds to me (frankly, kind of crazy). I was very fortunate not to be exposed to that kind of education until middle school, in 6th grade. But this kind of thing makes me cringe.
- A better way to influence your children is to teach them what I’ve attained, now, at age 19 in college: everything in moderation. Teach them that drugs are these substances (plants and liquids and powders, and chemicals) that people inhale, ingest, inject, etc. to make them “feel good”. Then tell them that they’re not a big deal and to forget about them until they’re older, but that if they have any questions about what any of these drugs are, they should feel free to ask. But never say “DRUGS ARE BAD!” without explaning what these “bad” drugs ARE. What is Marijuana? It is the flowers of the Cannabis Sativa plant, dried and often rolled up in cigarettes. What is tobacco? It is a plant whose leaves are dried, cured, and shredded to be rolled into cigarettes or stuffed into pipes to be similarly smoked. What is alcohol? It’s an intoxicating liquid which takes many forms, from Wine to Beer to Liquor.
- Each of these answer is OBJECTIVE, without any extraneous emotions attached to them. Let your kids KNOW what drugs are, before they are influenced by your fears about them using them. They pick up a whole lot. Let them have a few more years of “innocence” before they start being afraid of the dark spector that we have made drugs: unknown, scary, and dangerous even to be informed about. I know almost everything there is to know about many drugs, such as heroin, LSD, mushrooms, cocaine, and esctacy, but I have no desire to try any of these. Heroin is addicting, so is cocaine, Esctacy is notoriously impure, and LSD and mushrooms last too long for my taste (in fact, all of them do).
- So the only two drugs I use are Alcohol (yes, it’s a drug too, don’t forget!), and Marijuana. I feel I have a healthy relationship to both: i only drink on weekends, and I only smoke marijuana when I don’t have any work to do on any given day, and even then only with friends. and EVEN THEN only a small amount. I know some people who go so overboard with marijuana, but it’s not for me.
- Here’s a story to illustrate that point: Some friends of mine who smoke pot invited me to go see a laser-light show at the Boston Science Museum last year. Before-hand, we smoked a little pot. Actually, correction: we smoked a truckload of pot. Or they did. We were passing around a bong, and I had to stop after four hits. They went on to about 8 each, possibly more. And MY eyes hurt during the laser-show! This was not for me, so I stopped hanging out with them (they went to another school, so this was easy). See, it’s all about moderation. I like to get high–they liked to get retarded. That’s the exact word they used.
- So you see, it’s not a bad thing to smoke pot. It’s bad to be like my friends were (and probably still are). They didn’t practice moderation. Always make sure your kids practice moderation. But of course, sometimes you need to practice moderation in moderation! It’s fine if you are usually moderate to go a little overboard sometimes. Loosen up! Smile! THEN talk about the serious things.
…why are we as parents SOOOO stoooopid when it comes to drug education and our children - took me a while …and i have to say the ONLY policy you should have with your children is Honesty …using balanced information – do NOT for heavens sake use information from “partnership” – it’s basically all lies and propaganda peppered with some small truth here and there