Monday, January 30, 2006

Getting them hooked

Not unlike the mythical drug dealers we all heard about in DARE, the British drug testing company Preventx is giving schools and parents free samples of their product in hopes that they'll be hooked.
Preventx director, Michelle Hart said: “This is the first of what we hope to be many schemes that we are involved with that will help tackle school drug issues."
Yes, this is quite the "scheme."

1 comment:

Jonthon said...

Dear Gorilla:
I have defended and will continue to defend your right to engage us in this forum. However, in this instance, I wholeheartedly disagree with all three of your paragraphs.
First, illegal drugs are not abused more often because they are safer. They are illegal because power holders realized they could create a war on drugs to give them an endless supply of fear appeals when war with other countries was not strategic or possible.
Second, drugs that are more potent are not safer. The opposite is true - the lower the potency, the less chance of accidental overdose. Marijuana's toxicity is very low, but it is my d.o.c. I based this choice on the perceived risk which, with regard to marijuana, is very close to nil. I do not experiment with harder drugs because, given their relatively high level of potency, I perceive of them as being more "risky." I believe some users experiment with hard drugs for the experiental factor, and a small percentage probably do so because their craving for a high is no longer satiated by less potent drugs. Given the increased mortality rate attributed to these drugs, though, your claim that they are safer seems prima facie incorrect.
There are no current legitimate scientific studies because possession of narcotics is against the law. Most scientists are not willing to break the law in the name of science (perhaps a sad truth), and are not given any easement by the U.S. government. However, American scientists have in the past performed many experiments on illegal drugs (Electric Koolaid Acid Trip, anyone?), and foreign scientists perform such tests with some degree of regularity.

Again, I thank you for engaging this group in conversation. I might request that you read over your posts for general readability, as I sometimes have trouble understanding what you are trying to say. However, I have enjoyed your criticisms of VP Cheney, and the sociocultural comparison of prescription and illegal drug use and abuse. I wish you luck with your manual.

Sincerely,
Jonthon