east staines massiv
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2000
- Messages
- 117
Bad journalism from this punter once again, suposedly a "youth reporter" but to me just more of a "scare parents about their YOUTH reporter" .. this is just propaganda, complete crap and the thing that pissed me off the most is that in a whole page article, there was no CONTENT whatsoever.
I've already emailed my opinions to him directly... you can do the same:
Mixed messages to young on drugs
By Nick Miller
THEY reckon a child sees 8000 TV murders before his 10th birthday. But by the time he is 21, he probably knows more about drugs than killing people.
Which is ironic, really, because the thing he does not know about drugs is exactly how they kill and why they are illegal. He knows a lot of other stuff.
His music hero, Marilyn Manson, talks in an interview about how much fun ecstasy is.
An article in The Face magazine fills him in on the "whoosh", the new trendy sample in dance music that is supposed to be just like the MDMA (ecstasy) rush.
The electronic music mags have special editions on Why Drugs Are Bad, for exactly the same reason Cleo and Cosmo run articles on Why You Don't Need To Be As Thin As Our Models.
Eminem raps about Purple Pills, sorry, Hills. The song is a virtual shopping list and in case you missed the detail, the lyrics are on the Internet (his new DVD is called simply E, chuckle chuckle).
The Verve sing The Drugs Don't Work. Nine Inch Nails tell you You Are the Perfect Drug, Cypress Hill take Hits From the Bong, easy listening radio tries not to think what the Red Hot Chili Peppers were doing Under the Bridge Downtown. Even if mum switches off Rage and puts on The Beatles"Revolver CD you have to wonder what their Doctor Robert was peddling.
Movies? Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction, Human Traffic, Go, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Traffic . . .
Switch on the TV? Certainly not that dodgy Ali G. Catch a Simpsons rerun instead. See when Lisa drinks the water on the Duff-land ride . . . when Homer trips out from the Guatemalan insanity chilli peppers . . . when Shelbyville contaminates Springfield's water supply with LSD and Marge sees the kitchen walls melting . . . the giant Satan picks up the bus and Otto says, "Whoa I must be having a flashback", Bart finds a bong and Homer laughs and says, "I haven't seen one of these in years", the blind guy's stash falls out of his pocket and the cops rock up for a bit of a session.
Drugs are literally, and metaphorically, washing up on our shores.
At school it used to be a hint of marijuana, scandal, expulsion! Now it is the standard, adolescent pretending-I-know-more-than-I-really-do on the subject of trips, speed, Yellow Smileys versus Beige Domes and rolling and comedown and chillout.
Alcohol is sooo last decade. At a 21st birthday party, you're probably as likely to be offered a line of speed as a tequila shot.
The official line is a handful of pamphlets and the message Just Say No, to which the answer is But My Mate Dave Said Yes And He Says He Had A Wicked Time And By The Way, He's Not Dead And He Scored The Powder From His Brother Who's A Lawyer.
The Internet is a whole different matter. If you are interested, even a brief search can find reams of information - local, national, international, official, unofficial, legal, semi-legal, definitely illegal, photos of pills with scores from one to 10, guesses at their contents, and pages upon pages ad infinitum of idle chat-room blah ranging from the thoughtful and responsible through to "has anyone seen the big "GET INVOLVED IN DRUGS!"ads around? We saw one at the movies last night and laughed our arses off". And: "Marky Mark, you are absolutely right!! What is the difference between gettin"smashed off piss and driving, and droppin"a pill or two and drivin'!!! I'll tell ya what I'd feel safer doin'. . ."
And: "Did anyone else have a green ? at Gatecrasher?? Me and a few friends had them and pretty much all agree that they take ages to come on (about an hour) but when they do - F...! Just like the old ones."
On a Perth-based site, ecstasy users write reports on which pills are good and bad.
Dance music promoters and club owners will twist sideways to deny the link between their legal business and illegal drugs. True, not everyone in a club is on something. True, the people running the place would have a much easier job if everyone in the place was straight as a born-again Christian.
But I went to a big music event last year and, just out of interest, asked about 20 people whether they were on anything. And the only guy who said no added:"Damnit, I left it to the last minute and couldn't get any". Are parents on top of this? Half the parents I know would not bat an eye if they caught their teenage child smoking a joint. Some would join in.
Are the police on top of this? Eight years ago, a friend of mine picked up an undercover cop at a big party and they went back to her flat to share a spliff. At outdoor music events, the police policy is if it's not obvious we won't search for it. Those packets of pills on the TV news, proudly shown off by police celebrating a big bust, must mean something. But it is hard to figure out what.
Is any of this remotely surprising? And if not, why do we pretend we are a society that takes a tough line on drugs?
This is not about heroin. I do not know much about that, except a friend of mine tried it at a party once and he is now just about to finish a PhD. Someone else I know of tried it once and he has a criminal record and his life is trash.
I am talking about drugs such as marijuana, speed and ecstasy which the majority of young people will come into contact with. Those drugs are undergoing a decriminalisation in the mind. The whole of society, apart from a few authority figures wearing uncool clothes is telling young people that drugs are a part of everyday life.
The problem is communicating the physiological, psychological and social dangers as a deluge of music and movies sends a very different message. It must be done in a way young people will accept, understand, and most importantly, act on.
I've already emailed my opinions to him directly... you can do the same:
Mixed messages to young on drugs
By Nick Miller
THEY reckon a child sees 8000 TV murders before his 10th birthday. But by the time he is 21, he probably knows more about drugs than killing people.
Which is ironic, really, because the thing he does not know about drugs is exactly how they kill and why they are illegal. He knows a lot of other stuff.
His music hero, Marilyn Manson, talks in an interview about how much fun ecstasy is.
An article in The Face magazine fills him in on the "whoosh", the new trendy sample in dance music that is supposed to be just like the MDMA (ecstasy) rush.
The electronic music mags have special editions on Why Drugs Are Bad, for exactly the same reason Cleo and Cosmo run articles on Why You Don't Need To Be As Thin As Our Models.
Eminem raps about Purple Pills, sorry, Hills. The song is a virtual shopping list and in case you missed the detail, the lyrics are on the Internet (his new DVD is called simply E, chuckle chuckle).
The Verve sing The Drugs Don't Work. Nine Inch Nails tell you You Are the Perfect Drug, Cypress Hill take Hits From the Bong, easy listening radio tries not to think what the Red Hot Chili Peppers were doing Under the Bridge Downtown. Even if mum switches off Rage and puts on The Beatles"Revolver CD you have to wonder what their Doctor Robert was peddling.
Movies? Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction, Human Traffic, Go, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Traffic . . .
Switch on the TV? Certainly not that dodgy Ali G. Catch a Simpsons rerun instead. See when Lisa drinks the water on the Duff-land ride . . . when Homer trips out from the Guatemalan insanity chilli peppers . . . when Shelbyville contaminates Springfield's water supply with LSD and Marge sees the kitchen walls melting . . . the giant Satan picks up the bus and Otto says, "Whoa I must be having a flashback", Bart finds a bong and Homer laughs and says, "I haven't seen one of these in years", the blind guy's stash falls out of his pocket and the cops rock up for a bit of a session.
Drugs are literally, and metaphorically, washing up on our shores.
At school it used to be a hint of marijuana, scandal, expulsion! Now it is the standard, adolescent pretending-I-know-more-than-I-really-do on the subject of trips, speed, Yellow Smileys versus Beige Domes and rolling and comedown and chillout.
Alcohol is sooo last decade. At a 21st birthday party, you're probably as likely to be offered a line of speed as a tequila shot.
The official line is a handful of pamphlets and the message Just Say No, to which the answer is But My Mate Dave Said Yes And He Says He Had A Wicked Time And By The Way, He's Not Dead And He Scored The Powder From His Brother Who's A Lawyer.
The Internet is a whole different matter. If you are interested, even a brief search can find reams of information - local, national, international, official, unofficial, legal, semi-legal, definitely illegal, photos of pills with scores from one to 10, guesses at their contents, and pages upon pages ad infinitum of idle chat-room blah ranging from the thoughtful and responsible through to "has anyone seen the big "GET INVOLVED IN DRUGS!"ads around? We saw one at the movies last night and laughed our arses off". And: "Marky Mark, you are absolutely right!! What is the difference between gettin"smashed off piss and driving, and droppin"a pill or two and drivin'!!! I'll tell ya what I'd feel safer doin'. . ."
And: "Did anyone else have a green ? at Gatecrasher?? Me and a few friends had them and pretty much all agree that they take ages to come on (about an hour) but when they do - F...! Just like the old ones."
On a Perth-based site, ecstasy users write reports on which pills are good and bad.
Dance music promoters and club owners will twist sideways to deny the link between their legal business and illegal drugs. True, not everyone in a club is on something. True, the people running the place would have a much easier job if everyone in the place was straight as a born-again Christian.
But I went to a big music event last year and, just out of interest, asked about 20 people whether they were on anything. And the only guy who said no added:"Damnit, I left it to the last minute and couldn't get any". Are parents on top of this? Half the parents I know would not bat an eye if they caught their teenage child smoking a joint. Some would join in.
Are the police on top of this? Eight years ago, a friend of mine picked up an undercover cop at a big party and they went back to her flat to share a spliff. At outdoor music events, the police policy is if it's not obvious we won't search for it. Those packets of pills on the TV news, proudly shown off by police celebrating a big bust, must mean something. But it is hard to figure out what.
Is any of this remotely surprising? And if not, why do we pretend we are a society that takes a tough line on drugs?
This is not about heroin. I do not know much about that, except a friend of mine tried it at a party once and he is now just about to finish a PhD. Someone else I know of tried it once and he has a criminal record and his life is trash.
I am talking about drugs such as marijuana, speed and ecstasy which the majority of young people will come into contact with. Those drugs are undergoing a decriminalisation in the mind. The whole of society, apart from a few authority figures wearing uncool clothes is telling young people that drugs are a part of everyday life.
The problem is communicating the physiological, psychological and social dangers as a deluge of music and movies sends a very different message. It must be done in a way young people will accept, understand, and most importantly, act on.
