The National Youth Anti-drug Media Campaign’s “TheAntiDrug.com” is the federal government’s latest ridiculous effort to bring “The War On Drugs” to the teenage set. Designed for parents of 9- to 18-year-olds, the campaign’s Web site contains information on drugs and how to keep their children from taking them.
Nearly everyone agrees that keeping teenagers from dabbling in illegal drugs is a noble objective, but some of the Web site’s recommendations are unnecessarily intrusive, advocating that parents go a little too far in their quest against illicit drugs.
The “drug lingo” section of the Web site gives a list of drug slang that parents should pay attention to. Although knowing what 4:20 stands for may help parents, if they begin to think that their teenagers might be talking about ecstasy whenever they mention Kleenex or stars, both of which are listed as pseudonyms for the drug, vigilance has gone too far.
With testimonials from teenagers that say things like, “My cell phone was the most important tool for me to get drugs,” the campaign uses scare tactics to persuade parents to intrude into their teenager’s lives. The alternative, naturally, is a heroin overdose.
A large portion of the recommendations revolve around monitoring their children to prevent drug use from arising. The site recommends building an “open trusting relationship” with teenagers, but advocates going through their e-mail and instant messaging contact lists. In addition, the campaign recommends requiring teenagers to ask for approval when adding someone as a friend on networking Web sites such as MySpace and going through text messages stored on cell phones, justifying the intrusions with the preposterous claim that telling teenagers about them ahead of time will prevent hard feelings from arising.
Despite the campaign’s heavy focus on monitoring, however, it states that parents’ negative attitude toward drugs are the most likely to dissuade their offspring from trying them. According to a University of Michigan study, teenagers have decreased their usage of all illicit drugs except for Oxycontin, but the Associated Press reported that 50- to 59-year-olds’ drug use actually increased over the same time period. If the government is concerned about keeping teenagers off drugs, they should focus more of their efforts on the most influential adults in their lives – their parents.
That the federally approved way to keep kids off drugs is to take away their privacy is troubling, especially because there is a less intrusive and more effective method. Although parents obviously should pay attention to what their children are doing, following the campaign’s suggestions would require suspicion verging on paranoia regarding their actions. We hope parents will tread cautiously in preventing drug use so they can avoid doing more harm than good.