vida

Uhm, so, yeah, this is what I have to show for yesterday afternoon:


I am really fucking pissed off about all these stupid anti-drug campaigns the government has going on. For one thing, it's a HUGE WASTE OF THE TAXPAYER'S MONEY. And it's all a bunch of bullshit.
This past summer, I was working on getting my "Serving It Right" certification which allows me to serve booze should I be employed by a bar or restaurant or other establishment serving beverages of an alcoholic nature. Part of the "schooling" for this certificate includes learning about the effects of drugs and how to tell if a patron is intoxicated with something other than alcohol.
What a fucking joke.
I had to rely 100% on my own personal experiences with these things because the government websites where I was supposed to get my information were full of shit. Extremely inaccurate, highly embellished shit with too many liberties taken.
These websites are straight up, plain and simply trying to scare kids into not doing drugs.
They imply they are going to inform you about the effects of certain street drugs. But they don't.
They show you a bunch of photoshopped pictures of troll-like characters that look like bad guys in low-budget indie horror films - and tell you you will become one of them the very instant you reach out for that joint.
Fucking BULLSHIT.
They don't say much about hard drugs, just that you'll end up addicted them if you ever lay a single finger on marijuana or ecstasy.
There was even this one website aimed at convincing young drivers not to blaze and drive. It featured a cute little game where you use your mouse to drive around a little neighbourhood at night ((I have no idea why it had to be at night)). The roads were very winding, cars were shooting in and out of driveways like dicks ramming assholes in pornos, creating unpredictable obstacles, iridescant people ran all over the streets, and shit like trees and stop signs kept popping up all over the place. It looked like a really crazy acid trip. But you're supposed to use your mouse to manouver a little car through all the chaos to your "home" driveway. And somehow, this is supposed to teach you what it's like driving high on pot and make you decide to never do it.
And there was the one where the little kids - seemingly aged 5 to 7- recite lists of randomly selected and sompletely irrelevant words. Oh, but wait, these words are nicknames for drugs - and if your kids ever say any of these words, you know for dead sure they are deep in the throwes of addiction and may never return. Cry. You're all screwed.

These websites and commercials and posters in school hallways are bullshit.
There has got to be a better way to do this.
To actually INFORM kids instead of just trying to scare the shit out of them, or feed them a bunch of irrelevant lies and twisted fairy tales.
Get a bunch of addicts in various stages of recovery to come up with some ideas. They know these drugs on an intimate level and can explain the horrors with firsthand experience instead of whoever these people are that write this shit now, they're merely speculating. It's like the blind leading the blind. But the ignorant leading the stupid.

You know, no one wakes up in the morning, climbs out of bed, scratches their ass and thinks "Huh, it's a nice day today, I think I'll become a drug addict." similarly, no one does the same with the thought of "Huh, it's a nice day today, I think I'll not become a drug addict."
These things don't just come out of nowhere. They are not concious descisions. Events and experiences lead us into situations where these questions become subconcious urges.
Not saying we should continue with the subliminal brainwashing videos or not, but there has to be something better. There has to be a way to honestly explain the effects of addictions and provide accurate information so kids can make the right descision on a concious level. This shit the government has going on right now is just that - shit. It's not helping. It's terrorism. It's a bunch of scare tactics bundled together a lobbed at already frightened parents and their thoroughly confused children. What I'm saying is, the parents are scared enough about bullies, kidnappers, perverted teachers, childhood obesity, and so on. They don't need 'OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT YOU'RE KID IS A FUCKED UP DRUG ADDICT WHO IS GOING TO LIVE AND DIE ON THE STREETS AND THERE ISN'T A DAMN THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!!!" The kids are confused enough about their sexuality, their place in the world, their social standing, what they're going to have for lunch. They don't need this poorly constructed propaganda to cause further confusion "What the fuck is this shit and how is it relevant to anything?"

Just because you develop an addiction - or even TRY one drug one time - doesn't mean you're going to look like the girl on tv with all the gross Halloween makeup and bad wig, sitting in an empty room saying "I wish I never touched that joint". It's not an instant *POOF* now you're fucked for the rest of your life. That seems to be the general idea among these media displays.

Could we possibly educate the parents first? I know they're busy and prefer to limit their outside-of-work-hours brain activity to what's for dinner and maybe checking Stacy's math homework later. But maybe if some of them would take the time to come to some sort of class - just one, even!!! just one time - or read some manner of well-put together booklet, they could have some vague sort of understanding of this issue beyond the realm of "I found a pill under my kid's bed, that's it, I've lost my baby!!! This is the end, I'll never see them again!!!" and it turns out it's actually one of those little mints in the clicky box - those things are always spilling all over the place.
Maybe if we can get the parents to chill out and get a clue, things will work a little better. We can open a line of communication between parents and children where they can honestly discuss important issues like drug use, eating disorders, and the like without fear of punishment, resentment, or other negative retribution from either side. Maybe, if the government stops wasting our hard-earned money on these bullshit websites and failing attempts at "educating" todays youth, they can put it toward something that will actually work. And it will work, at least a little bit, that much is guaranteed. It will at least open some eyes.
And hey, with the money we save, we can afford to buy some more dope.
Just kidding.
We're better off spending the money we have now on getting ourselves - and our children - good and fucked up because we're all damned no matter what. Nothing is going to change, nothing is going to get better. We're all headed to the same place anyway. Might aswell get high and enjoy the ride.
Try going backwards on a rollercoaster.
It's a neat idea.
But it's just not going to happen.