Teaching People to Say No to Drugs

Legal drugs are just as bad.

Nitrous, nicotine.

You are asking some very good questions, Lightbrite. I don’t know all of the answers. I think that most Jewish adults know about the effects of drug use even if they don’t know all of the details. It is hard not to know about it in a day and age when unfortunately, we constantly hear of kids o.ding. Also, there have been articles on the topic published in the Frum magazines.

There was an article (I think in Mishpacha, but it could have been Binah) last year about drug abuse. The article did describe the effects, and I learned a lot of things from it that I had not necessarily been aware of. For example, it discused the issue of brain damage. There were interviews with kids who had been drug abusers and were now “clean” but had suffered irreparable damage.

So there definitely is a lot of awareness in recent years, at least as far as the adults. In terms of the kids, I do not know whether or not the schools teach it. I think that nowadays, everyone knows about kids-at-risk and drugs, etc. No matter how insulated kids are, it is pretty hard not to be aware of these issues nowadays.

I do not know whether or not kids know about all of the specific damages and effects caused by drugs. BUT, everyone knows that they are seriously problematic. And in the Frum world, it is a given that it is considered BAD to take drugs. The only kids who use drugs in the Frum world are kids with major issues who are taking the drugs out of desperation.

I am pretty sure that these kids know how bad drugs are, and that a course explaining how bad they are would not help. I was at a bus stop once, and a teenage boy (who appeared to be at-risk) was smoking. An elderly lady pointed out to him that smoking is unhealthy. His response was “Lady, I am not smoking because I think it is healthy.”

Frum kids do not take drugs because they think they are healthy. They take drugs out of desperation because they have problems that are not being resolved.

The Frum world is dealing with this issue by trying to find ways to resolve their problems as well as to take preemptive measures so that these problems don’t come about in the first place. Mentoring programs, therapy, educational help, etc. are the ways that the Frum world is trying to resolve these problems.

In terms of alcohol abuse, both adults and kids are aware of the problems. That is why most Frum people generally refrain from too much alchohol use, and only use it on specific occasions, and even then it is generally pretty limited.

Those are the answers to your questions to the best of my knowledge.

(Can you think of a parallel? It’s pretty obvious.)

From a Rabbi AJ Twerski book:

Not long after First Lady Nancy Reagan launched the “Just say no to drugs” campaign, some researchers were addressing a high school, and learned that many of the students were heavily into drug abuse. They asked the students why they did not pay attention to the “Just say no to drugs” message. Their reply was, “What else is there?”

I understand this to reflect an interesting thought. The knowledge about the dangers of drugs and alcohol can be useful, but are not strong enough to save someone from the pain of a life that is devoid of meaning. The drugs provide momentary relief (actually either distraction or anesthesia) from this torment. That is somehow preferred to the existence without meaning, self-esteem, goals, and feelings of success and achievement.

Not sure how much this matters for the life of the goy, but when we are failing to provide the meaning, etc. for our children, in our frum, Torah based homes, there is a problem. Without a doubt, there are many directions we can point fingers. But it remains incumbent on us to insure our children the most meaningful experience of growing up, where the values we are taught are modeled, where they are given good reason to absorb the recognition that their lives and connection to HKB”H and Torah is valuable and positive. Most people can probably identify ways in which we fail at this. But we can also suggest ways to make these values supreme in our lives.

Torah life is great. The benefit to the follower of a Torah life is (to use Trump vocabulary) HUGE.

In elementary school, we had a workbook with black and white photos on the opening pages. To the left there was a photo of a brain with a caption “This is your brain” and to the right a photo of a fried egg in a pan, sunny side up with the caption “This is your brain on drugs.”

I think my teacher explained it, but when when I first saw it I was baffled. It was a stark ad, but probably one intended for a more mature audience that understood the nuances. I guess I was more literal at that age, and fried in this context was new to me. I remember thinking along the lines of how does photo A (a brain) morph into photo B (an egg).

As a frum student I honestly didn’t feel it was directed at me, and none of my classmates as far as I know ever did drugs. B”H for my sheltered upbringing, which although perhaps needs some slight tweaking nowadays when some kids have more exposure, it has worked well in my days of yore…

The ad was likely part of Nancy Reagan’s campaign as well.

Excellence: everything in moderation is what I’d say about coffee. And it doesn’t cause brain damage.

I just remembered that the ad I mentioned also had a center portion stating “This is drugs.” with a photo of cocaine or some powder.

In hindsight, I guess it’s considered good marketing if I still remember it. The goal was perhaps that as well, to have “flash-backs” of the message when students were confronted with temptation years later.

I get a bit bemused when the hot water urn somehow dried out over Shabbos night and people rumble when they come to shule and can’t have a coffee or tea in the morning. Now, that is an addiction. Challila! No coffee! Gevalt!

I’m not addicted to this forum. I only post when I need information I can’t find on my own. I have a life outside here.

Related question: do posters here know that asking ill-formed subjectively specific broad questions on controversial and serious topics, will not lead to anything but entertainment?