Did your children know they could get high from household products?
That is one of the messages being portrayed by the glitzy new
anti-drug commercial that campaigns against inhalant abuse.

My work buddies and I were discussing high school and our peers and
our own initiation into the drug culture. One thing we agreed on was
that it was when we found out about drugs (and I include alcohol here)
that our interest and attention became focused. For many kids, the
more forbidden something was, the more of a challenge it was to see if
they could get it and experience it themselves. I think these TV
commercials that make a big deal of illicit drugs will (like the DARE
program) focus attention and curiosity. This is counter to the intent.

But what I also want to say is something that most people do not wish
to understand, and that is that the drug war itself has severely
accentuated our problems. The information is out there for those who
wish to examine it.

Thomas Paine said, "No man is prejudiced in favor of a thing knowing
it to be wrong. He is attached to it in the belief of its being
right." Perhaps you believe you are right, but have you got the
straight thinking and facts to verify that?

Larry Nickerson