NEWS: The Age 19 May 01: State chooses realism in drugs fight

[BigTrancer]

State chooses realism in drugs fight
By JULIE-ANNE DAVIES
Saturday 19 May 2001
A new, more realistic anti-drugs television and radio campaign by the Bracks Government aimed at 15-to-18-year-olds and dealing with marijuana, ecstasy and heroin use will begin in July.
The campaign will contrast sharply with the shock tactics of the Howard Government in its "body bag" campaign. State Government research has shown that teenagers do not identify with the Prime Minister's $20 million drug message.
Full article at: http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/05/19/FFXTIN1UUMC.html

That's right, you heard correctly. Twenty million... count them again... twenty million tax dollars spent on a badly aimed advertising campaign to teach parents how make their children feel paranoid. I get the feeling that those involved have misidentified the section of our community in need of a shock tactic to make them see reality.
BigTrancer

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Load universe into cannon. Aim at brain. Shoot.
[This message has been edited by BigTrancer (edited 19 May 2001).]

 

[E-u4ria]

how can you fight a "war on drugs" when your own children, neighbours and friends can be the enemy and you'd never know...
oh well goddamit i guess the victorian foez'll just have to put up with more government propaganda... joy joy joy
i wish they'd just give us unbiased information and drop the political agenda...
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Does anyone really notice the stupid quotes people place here?

 

[luro]

I reckon Johnny gets on the coke.

 

[E-u4ria]

"Cocaine is god's way of telling you that you have too much money" - Robin Williams
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Does anyone really notice the stupid quotes people place here?

 

[pundi]

Not that i want it to happen, but I have wondered on occasion as to why the government/s tend to fund campaigns that generally have a lot of 'half truthes', when they would be far more effective if they just spread crap. A campaign who's primary message was that (insert drug here) can cause genital shrinkage and breast sagage (if thats a word), would probably result in many more kids being more apprehensive about drugs. Even if they did take the drugs, they would generally be more paranoid while on them (possibly leading to less taken). It would probably be a lot harder for the drug 'industry' to generate anti-publicity to these type statements.
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too many 'ifs' and 'probablies' in there, just take it as a badly thought out opinion.

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insanity is the in thing this season..

 

[Luko]

Don't bash the federal "war on drugs" too badly. a lot of the stuff was crap, and $20mil is too much to spend. but that booklet did set out the negative aspects to drugs and drug culture in a mainly truthful and unbiased way. there's a lotta parents out there now who are a bit more cluey as to what their kids are doing and hopefully will take a more realistic approach. at least the campaign acknowledges kids will probably use drugs from time to time and gives the parents a realistic way to approach that problem. rather than some of the propaganda that ppl post links to from time to time. Like [link=http://www.geocities.com/snackrelatedmishap/]this[/link].

 

[Airwalk]

Actually the booklet was I thought did more damage than good. It was balanced but contained no where near enough information so that parent would be able to come to their own conclusion about drugs. Things such as % of users that become addicts for each drug. The different triggers for drug use (ie experimentation, spirtual exploration or unhappy household). In addition to this long and short term effects where more of a generalisation than acurate info.
Anyway lets hope the state governments do a better job. Let's hope they focus on those that actually need help.
P.S I had a positive opinion about the booklet initially but when read again I realised that it fell well short of the mark.
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To the one you feel in the metronome of your mind.
Does it offend you that our rhythm looks strange.
Or causes your thinking to be re arranged.
Could it be that you would understand this beat to which we dance
more clearly had you been given a chance
So as you struggle to find the feel with your feet
Ask yourself can you dance to my beat!

 

[primus]

"We've had a death and a couple of kids who've lost testicles from injecting Normison into their groin."
All i can say to that is OUCH!!!