Wikipedia article about the Montana Meth Project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Meth_Project

I’m from Montana and I personally hate the Montana Meth Project. It relies on revolting images and a “just say no” tactic to keep kids and young adults from trying meth. It’s not how I want my kids to learn to not do drugs.

There are A LOT of really interesting sociological things going on with this project (in fact, it came up in one of my soc classes this past week)–but grassroots, take-it-into-our-own-hands action isn’t what’s going on.

No matter how many times someone writes “Meth: Not even once!” or “Stop meth” or whatever, all our brains are seeing is “meth! meth! meth!”

So now that we all have meth on our minds, the difference between the minds that decide to use it vs. those that don’t often comes down to whether or not they were taught to obey without question vs. how to think for themselves.

Critical thinking skills also help when the kids encounter things they were not taught to be scared of; they might know “meth no good! Meth baaad!” but what about 4-HO-AMT? 2CI? Bromo-Dragonfly? DXM? Or the vast array of other substances that are similarly less well known or the new ones popping up every day (users of novel “research chemicals” are literally taking the place of guinea pigs since they are often completely untested substances).

After all, most if not all current meth addicts went through a public school anti-drug indoctrination program, and yet here we are…

Critical thinking skills are the only way that someone can come to accept that they have been lied to about many things regarding recreational drug use (or adulthood in general for that matter) without assuming that everything was a lie and making very poor decisions as a result.

Many people’s hearts are in the right place with these kinds of campaigns, but this is a huge and complex issue that most adults can barely handle rationally. So using children’s art classes for feel-good anti-drug indoctrination is ineffective towards its stated end (at best!) while merely  managing to contaminate the study and appreciation of art with propaganda that insults the intelligence of the children being subjected to it. At some point they will realize this, and I hope they already know how to think for themselves when that day comes.

Methamphetamine has a lower LD-50 than caffeine, meth has been common in California since the 1950’s, it’s produced by Georgia Tech (and likely others, but I know for sure that they do) for the Government (military “go pills” pilots sign for before long missions) and is available by prescription when things like Adderall have too many side-effects (meaning it’s less toxic than Adderall).

The vast majority of harm (such as the “faces of meth” and all that) is being caused by consuming the result of an improper synthesis of non-pharmaceutical grade reagents in excessive amounts while neglecting things like basic nutrition and getting some sleep. I guess we can also add the violence and property crime related to the economics of the black market to this equation.

It’s amazing that some people live as long as they do while chronically overdosing on a powerful stimulant contaminated with heavy metals and industrial solvents (not even counting what it’s cut with, which can be many different things) while also not eating or sleeping for extended periods. And meth became half drug, half toxic waste when the Federal Government began it’s intense crackdown on clean precursors (most was made from pseudoephedrine obtained from pure, over-the-counter sources). Now most consumed in the US is made in Mexico as it’s just another product for the cartels to make money on.

So again we see that Prohibition results in greater harm than a more reasonable solution based on economic and physiological realities, namely that people in general like to alter their consciousness and obviously will continue to do so even at great personal risk (both health-wise and in terms of legal consequences).

Getting someone off meth for good if they’re addicted is hard (more so mentally than physically), but it’s a whole lot easier if they’re not also malnourished and suffering from heavy metal and industrial solvent poisoning.

But you might be right; the way it’s framed here could be reinforcing the dynamic already in place more than it’s fighting it. I have to admit, I’d failed to notice how ubiquitous meth had become in the gay urban community before a lot of expensive ads came out targeting it, but suddenly it seemed as though everyone was doing it. I guess if I’d been oriented more toward fitting in, that might’ve been all I needed to give it a go myself.

The much bigger issue, I think, is inadvertently expressed in this recurrent slogan, “Not Even Once.” Those words contain the profound sense of helplessness in the face of drug addiction that can only exist in a place with inadequate infrastructure. A drug crisis has incredibly far-reaching, community-destroying impact when combined with a lack of accessible health care, a lack of job opportunities outside the black market, and the permanent socioeconomic instability caused by even a single criminal conviction. The communities that put up these signs know first hand how devastating one person’s addiction can be to an entire family, especially in places so economically precarious.

And yet, in the same communities, social policies that could help improve low-income families’ odds of getting through such a crisis are all-too-often disconnected from the spectre of drug abuse, and this is the big tragedy hidden behind the complete failure of the facile “just say no” message. We’re focusing so much on the individual addict that we forget about what happens to his family when he loses his job and/or home, how much deadlier a bad habit is without even basic health services, or how much less likely a more stable future is once the addict has been raked over by the criminal justice system. As a result, many of the communities hit hardest by this crisis – along with the broader financial one – are firmly opposed to the reforms that would ease the burden.

So in desperation, we’re stuck with this “don’t do meth” message, which is about as effective as “don’t steal stuff” or “don’t have sex.” It’s so sad it makes me want to drink.
 

Viewers might overestimate the number of people doing meth, which makes them more likely to try it.

Is dinner itself an addiction?