Illegal drugs. Boo!
I think one of my biggest pet peeves about the field of addiction treatment is this idea that we can scare people away from their addiction. It doesn’t work. For one thing, people desperate for their next hit aren’t thinking, “Do I take this hit and risk [insert dire prognostication here]?” Research has even demonstrated that scare tactics don’t work. That doesn’t stop people from trying to go that route. Today I visited a residential treatment center for drug addicts, and it happened again. Someone had found some flier that told about all the bad things smoking pot can do to you. Benefits for smoking pot: none. That’s bullshit. Of course there are benefits from smoking pot or people. wouldn’t. do it. Get real. Sure there are health risks as well, but there are health risks associated with drinking alcohol, too…and hamburgers and french fries and steak and butter…you get the idea. You can’t deter people that way.
A while back I sat through a video shown to some teenagers about the evils of marijuana. It was all about horrific cases of cancer that supposedly resulted from marijuana use. Right in the middle of the video one of the folk being interviewed said, “This isn’t about trying to scare you.” What the hell? What do you call it then? Why interview some guy who lost his lower jaw, and eventually his life, to cancer? Why the graphic images of surgery to remove diseased bone? You can get oral cancer from any smoking or tobacco habit, not just pot, and for every person who might have such dire consequences there are 100 or even 1000 who don’t. Do you think the kids were fooled by that disclaimer? I don’t.
Perhaps the one thing that has annoyed me the most was a poster hanging in the same room where we watched the video. I don’t remember the exact text now, but it basically said, “My mom drank herself into the grave, but Budweiser and Coors didn’t come to her funeral.” WTF? Great example of not taking responsibility for your own behavior. This is really what we want to teach teens? How to shift blame? The thing is: someone from the treatment team hung that poster up. I just don’t get it.
[...] by Greg on March 3, 2008 by Sean, crossposted from Hiding in the Backwaters I think one of my biggest pet peeves about the field of addiction treatment is this idea that we [...]