The drug war had its own board game. Yes, really
Christopher Ingraham September 16 2015
Don't get stuck in the Web of Lies (Christopher Ingraham/The Washington Post)
Here's a fun fact you may not have known about the nation's drug war: back in the 1980s it spawned an educational board game for kids called, you guessed it, "Just Say No!" After some folks on Twitter tipped me off to it a few months ago, we absolutely had to track down a copy for ourselves -- 40 bucks on eBay.
What finally arrived, from eBay, was a veritable time capsule of drug-war hysteria and good intentions gone awry. The game, which purports to "help kids say no to drugs and alcohol," is intended for children as young as five. Players move around the board by answering open-ended questions intended as conversational ice-breakers between kids and any responsible authority figures they might be playing with.
Some of the questions are pretty straightforward -- "Why is it dangerous to drink alcohol and drive a car?" Or "Why do you think it is a good idea to say no to drugs and alcohol?"
Others are borderline creepy: "Do you like to keep secrets? When do you like being alone?" And many others delve into specifics of drug use that are frankly inappropriate to pose to elementary school-aged kids: "Is crack the same as cocaine? What is angel dust? What does marijuana look like?"
continued here http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...e-drug-war-had-its-own-board-game-yes-really/
Christopher Ingraham September 16 2015
Don't get stuck in the Web of Lies (Christopher Ingraham/The Washington Post)
Here's a fun fact you may not have known about the nation's drug war: back in the 1980s it spawned an educational board game for kids called, you guessed it, "Just Say No!" After some folks on Twitter tipped me off to it a few months ago, we absolutely had to track down a copy for ourselves -- 40 bucks on eBay.
What finally arrived, from eBay, was a veritable time capsule of drug-war hysteria and good intentions gone awry. The game, which purports to "help kids say no to drugs and alcohol," is intended for children as young as five. Players move around the board by answering open-ended questions intended as conversational ice-breakers between kids and any responsible authority figures they might be playing with.
Some of the questions are pretty straightforward -- "Why is it dangerous to drink alcohol and drive a car?" Or "Why do you think it is a good idea to say no to drugs and alcohol?"
Others are borderline creepy: "Do you like to keep secrets? When do you like being alone?" And many others delve into specifics of drug use that are frankly inappropriate to pose to elementary school-aged kids: "Is crack the same as cocaine? What is angel dust? What does marijuana look like?"
continued here http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...e-drug-war-had-its-own-board-game-yes-really/
