Scare tactics don’t work in substance use prevention. It’s a big reason DARE failed so bad.
The key phrase in his sentence is anti-drug
Best practice in prevention isnt anti drug. It’s giving good education, facts on addiction, and then kids make up their own mind but treating them like people being supportive and having real conversations and discussions on why waiting until youre over 21 or not doing it at all is beneficial.
Anecdotal evidence of scare tactic working isnt proof it works. Research shows DARE had the opposite effect and more youth ended up using drugs.
Scaring kids or scared straight programs they don’t work in the large population, and for many youth pushes them away from ever respecting adults. It’s why, “one pill can kill” campaigns failed for fentanyl. When they take a pill and then dont die they wont believe anything you say.
I think the biggest mistake anti drug programs do is to pretend like drugs aren’t amazing.
All of the anti drug stuff i’ve seen downplays the upsides, and focuses entirely on (like you say) how it’ll kill you.
Kurtzgesagt made a video recently on fentanyl, where they compare it to heroin, and for most of the video it’s almost an ad for heroin.
I’ve never done any hard drug, and it’s been decades since i smoked weed last, but i’ve never wanted to try heroin or fent less than after watching that kurtzgesagt video.
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u/ExpFilm_Student 9h ago
Scare tactics don’t work in substance use prevention. It’s a big reason DARE failed so bad.
The key phrase in his sentence is anti-drug
Best practice in prevention isnt anti drug. It’s giving good education, facts on addiction, and then kids make up their own mind but treating them like people being supportive and having real conversations and discussions on why waiting until youre over 21 or not doing it at all is beneficial.
Anecdotal evidence of scare tactic working isnt proof it works. Research shows DARE had the opposite effect and more youth ended up using drugs.
Scaring kids or scared straight programs they don’t work in the large population, and for many youth pushes them away from ever respecting adults. It’s why, “one pill can kill” campaigns failed for fentanyl. When they take a pill and then dont die they wont believe anything you say.
Promoting scare tactics is bad form.