In the Narconon Drug Abuse Prevention Program we spend a large portion of our time in front of children.  Kids these days are different from the kids of twenty or thirty years ago; on the subject of drugs, they are more informed and less willing to accept whatever is told to them by some adult.

Something as important as the education of our youth on the dangers of drug use and abuse must have impact without being mere platitude. 

It is actually surprising when we find, after a drug prevention presentation, that the most impressive thing to the students is the fact that we didn’t try to tell them what to do.  We didn’t try to make them jump in the direction we wanted and we refrained from giving them little sayings they could repeat endlessly and which would themselves become eventually pointless. 

Advertisers have known for years how to push an emotional button in a child or an adult and get a desired reaction.   There is a vast difference between reactions and decisions.  A reaction is something you can get in a Petri dish from an unthinking fungus; a decision is entirely different.  

We want the kids to act responsibly, yet we treat them as if they’re not responsible at all.   Do we think that this small human being wants to do himself in?   Has it been that long since we were children ourselves that we don’t remember being told what and how to think and how we resented it?

If we continue to apply psychological tricks to our children to try to get them to do what we want them to do and in the end complain that they are not acting responsibly we can only blame ourselves for the outcome.  

To try and employ ‘emotional triggers’ to get the reactions we want from our kids is a dangerous tactic.  They must inevitably resent us for trying to rule them with tricks and end up doing the exact opposite of what we desired.  

At the Narconon program, we have had considerable experience in drug prevention.  Our drug prevention speakers have spoken to hundreds of thousands of young people from age eight on up and have diligently surveyed them afterward.   From the mountains of surveys we have collected, one of the many things we have learned is this: these kids are young, but they are not insane.  They do not want to hurt themselves.  Students tell us over and over that they don’t want to hurt their bodies; that their health is one of the most important things to them and they will avoid doing something that they’re convinced will be unhealthful.  

It is imperative that we recognize that kids DO have the power of choice and they will base their decisions on the information they have and trust.   As adults we cannot control their decisions regarding drugs.  What we CAN do is direct them to plenty of solid, useful information about drugs and the damages drugs can do.  

If educators and health experts ensure young people have all the necessary information regarding drugs of abuse, if teachers and parents make sure that kids are informed enough to make a decision as well as any adult regarding drugs, then we’re going to finally see a reduction in the numbers of kids going down the road that leaves them burned out, with wasted capacities and ruined potentials.  

There is only one sure way to avoid the damages and destruction of drug abuse—to never start.  That is what we must teach our youth.    That is real harm reduction.  

Narconon.  The Road Out

Mr. Tony Bylsma, a Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor and Executive Director of Narconon Drug Prevention & Education, has since 1980 educated many thousands of students on the dangers of drugs. In addition he has years of experience in rehabilitating drug addicts. He can be reached at 1-888-966-3784.

* Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor

Toll Free: 888-9NO-DRUGS or 888-966-3784