First problem when teaching kids is getting their attention. "Class, today we're going to talk about drugs. This chapter is how amphetamines, when taken with a class of antidepressants known as MAO inhibitors may cause a potential hypertensive crisis thatzzzzzzzzz" Why brush your teeth? Booooring. Smoking? You may get cancer in like, 50 years but look reeeaallly cool the whole time? Forget about it. This would get their attention, make an impression and appeal to their overriding main concern: vanity. Throwing in a little showmanship wouldn't hurt either. A traveling freak show featuring "The Half Faced Helmet-less Bike Rider" the "One Toothed Floss Shirker", "Drug Delirium Mouth Foamer" etc. The M.C. would shout: "Here to horrify and edify! Hold on to your seats... they're coming out of the shadows now, I bring you..." Trot 'em out on stage with scary music in the background and have them tell their story with creepy lighting and the occasional lunge at the audience for effect. Writing a 2 page essay on the dangers of smoking isn't going to have half the effect on kids as seeing someone smoking a cigarette through their tracheotomy hole. End the show with the guy who didn't double space his homework so his eyeballs exploded.-- doctorremulac3, May 23 2005 Bez http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bez [zen_tom, May 23 2005] Wikipedia: Hell house http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_houseNot travelling, seasonal. [jutta, Jun 02 2006] Or "hobbit". I think we should do all we can to discourage LOTR.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 23 2005 Also, this could provide work for those of us who are too caught up in our habits.-- hidden truths, May 23 2005 An easy way to scare kids - "Jeff here picked his nose so much that one day it came off, stuch on the end of his finger!". Also, see which kids can tell the difference between correlation and causation: "Jim would never tidy his room when he was young and look! - now he's got diabetes".-- hippo, May 23 2005 //Drug Delirium Mouth Foamer// Bez is a youth hero (as is/was Syd Barrett, Kurt Kobain, and that guy who used to be in the Manic Street Preachers before they became 'good'), for almost exactly this reason. I think adults often fail to realise the extremes of individuality and identity to which kids can be drawn. These 'freaks' are already youth icons, I'm not sure it's sensible to create new ones that can't even play the guitar/sing/score vast quantities of drugs for the band and 'Bez-out' on stage.-- zen_tom, May 23 2005 Scared straight / healthy / fitter- happier- more- productive. Sounds good to me [+]-- contracts, May 23 2005 (-) Propaganda, in the same vein as this-is-your-brain-on-drugs.-- ldischler, May 23 2005 zen_tom makes a very good point. The difference between the Syd Barret, Kurt Kobain models and these guys is: they were immensely popular, obscenely rich and relatively good looking, not exactly poster boys for why you shouldn't do drugs. More like poster boys for why you should do drugs. These guys would burn an alternative, and more realistic image, into the kids minds. And the main difference would be one thing: They're not attractive. Plus, the folks on stage who may have made some bad decisions might feel they're getting a second chance to make a real contribution to society.
Gosh Idischler, I don't think I've ever heard anybody refer to an anti-cigarette smoking message as propaganda, which simply means "a message you don't agree with", but I appreciate your comment. Problem with the "this-is-your-brain-on-drugs" message is: No, that's not your brain on drugs. It's an egg being fried. And who said there would be any mention that drugs, cigarettes, booze and other un-safe behavior were bad? The kids would come up with those conclusions on their own. This would just show them that, if you let this stuff get out of control, you're not going to be glamorous, you're going to be gross.
So anyway, the booze and cigarette companies get to put their message out, (as they should be allowed to) why not show an alternate side of the story? Besides who cares about all that? It's an excuse to start a traveling freak show and that's good enough for me.-- doctorremulac3, May 23 2005 [editorial: If you used the occasional pagraph break - just hit <return> twice in a row - your text would give the reader a moment to catch their breath, and would be easier to read.]-- jutta, May 23 2005 Why not just put it in cinemas (in popular movies frequented by those more inclined to do drugs, smoke, etc), during the ads, you know, the 'other attractions you may enjoy', so why not enjoy the charming sight of people whose brains are so far gone that they don't care if they're on the cinema. I somewhat doubt that people would actually sign up for this sort of thing.
Pete Douherty would make a good frontliner for this. They could even make a band 'The Druggieteens'.
No, I was not being serious, so please don't blast me for saying it (unless you're the kind of person who thinks that Pete is a wonderful guy who really doesn't do drugs...)-- froglet, May 23 2005 I'd go for the entertainment, and sell drugs to kids on their way out.
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Okay, so, of course I wouldn't do that, but I think I'm making a really bad point, anyway.-- daseva, May 23 2005 [Froglet], we called that "Requiem for a Dream" here in the states :-)-- contracts, May 23 2005 See? There you go. Requiem for a Dream. How depressing. I'm sure they meant well, but if I'm a kid, and somebody tells me we're all gonna sit down and watch Requiem For a Dream, I'm thinking I'd rather drink Drano.-- doctorremulac3, May 24 2005 random, halfbakery