Ok, I know I'm starting to sound repetitive on this topic, but this really gets to me:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/04/10/1175971073477.html?from=top5

First of all, I am sick of hearing from 'Drug and Alcohol' campaigns. The title alone is completely misleading. The idea that alcohol is somehow independent of all other drugs is ludicrous. Scratch that, it's not ludicrous, it's deception, and because we can safely assume that the words are not chosen by accident, we must conclude that this is intentional and wilful deception.

The youth in our society today are binge drinking more and more. They are also smoking less marijuana.

Before I get into why this sucks, a cursory look at how it's happened:

There's a two pronged attack going on here. The first is the glamorization of alcohol, due largely to advertising. Amazing looking models dance about on billboards for ads for tequila, general fun loving Aussie culture in advertising is almost exclusively found in beer commercials, sugary mixer drinks appear to serve no other purpose than to appeal to 15 year olds. All this is not only condoned, but celebrated in our culture, despite the fact that alcohol is far and beyond the number 2 killer drug in our society (second only to cigarettes).

Enter the fear campaign against marijuana. Despite unmovable scientific evidence that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol in every single way, and not responsible for one single overdose ever, the number of young cannabis users has halved in the past 6 years. They're scared of it. That's fine in itself, cannabis ain't exactly broccoli. But what do they do instead? Hammer back jager bombs until they're stomach needs to be pumped, or they slam a car into a pedestrian, or wake up at age 40 with no kidney and a tumour in their colon.

This sucks because such a state of affairs can only be due to conscious and intentional deception. We know the truth, yet we tell our children the opposite. This is the unavoidable conclusion of the above.

So the only remaining question is: what is the motive for lying to our kids?

The motive is, "because they can". Governments love to think up new ways of doing, "the right thing" by the citizens by depriving them of their rights. The only thing you can do is amass a large amount of people (and that would be impossible without an exceptional event to create a new world order like the destruction of the Aboriginal people of Australia)

spendocrat. It is all just a ploy to make it look like they are doing something about drugs and to present the picture that they are doing a job. They target pot because it is the easiest to target and to get people off and, consumption has already dropped. That way they can then show that the campaign has been successful. Everything is for show.

The abuse of alcohol is rife within our youth. I have two teenage children and it is scary out there. It is all well and good for people to say "just say no" but when the culture is to drink and be promiscuous, when television makes drinking and sex popular if you say no and go against the grain you are left with nothing. If you dont join them you are not invited to parties, you are not included, you are ostrasized, bullied and critisised. Nobody wants that for their kids.

What we need is to do something about the glorifying of alcohol, drugs and sex by the media and by the public. Surely we are more intelligent than that? There needs to be a change in attitude.

Jolanda - my point was the double standard existing between two particular substances. Personally I think sex is glorious, and it doesn't exactly compare with alcohol in terms of a death toll, so I have no problem with its glorification

Pot shouldn't be encouraged, obviously, except perhaps as a safer alternative to binge drinking - that would be a logical approach. Instead it's treated as this evil threat to youth and to society, which, as I've stated earlier, is a complete lie. It prays on people's pre-existing fears rather than educate in any meaningful sense. All under the guise of a health message.

I'm speaking from very personal experience. From alcoholic to stoner - I can't even begin to list the ways in which my life has improved.

I can't help but ponder the possibilities of why the the two deadliest drugs are both legal, while comparatively harmless drugs like marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms are against the law. It's gotta either be a massive conspiracy whereby those in power wish to keep the masses docile by advocating substances that offer nothing positive, everything distractive and keep you stupid or dead, while simultaneously demonising and generating irrational fear of substances that in fact widen perspective and offer hope, OR, someone made a filing error a long time ago that was never corrected.

Drugs Kill.
Yes my dear old mum did get a precription from the doc, so her blood pressure would be controlled.
She died ten years later?
She would have died five years earlier,if she did not take her medicine.
It is time to tell everybody that some people like myself have a few drinks then walk home.
If I swallowed,injected myself or snorted I probably would not be able to walk home.
The reason why al,and I may be one of many who decide to committ suiside in later life.
Alcohol and illegal Drugs are mentioned separately is obvious to me perhaps not to our young.
If the young wish to gamble with their life it is right to tell them the evils of drug taking.Overdose,contamination,dieseses,Suicide soon or later in life,family sufferance,etc. l

...ok...dunno what brock is on, but lets try and ignore the wild abstract free association nonsense ramblings of crazy people, and attempt to focus on the topic maybe..