Reply To: Teaching People to Say No to Drugs

I am asking because I know someone who thinks it is just something to do to relax. He knows that someone who drinks and becomes aggressive does not need to drink because the behavior is unbecoming.

Yet since someone in his family is a happy drunk, he sees no problem in this person using alcohol and other illegal substances [if you want, you can substitute “legal” here and get the same point] regularly. This family member used to be in recovery.

I expressed my concern about this to someone who works with people in recovery (not lashon hara). I wanted to know what I can do to help. He asked me how is it that this person does not understand that supporting this family member’s substance abuse causes brain damage.

In my secular world, generally speaking, even individuals using drugs knows that doing it isn’t healthy.

I learned that “drugs are bad” from tv commercials, elementary school programs, and continued messages in media and obviously my parents.

I wondered how is it that he doesn’t know these things? Then I thought about it and maybe Jewish schools don’t have anti-drug programs. We already established here that there are many communities that shun watching television.

So are people learning this stuff or is it not part of common knowledge?

Thank you