Harm minimisation: just say no

[grace]

Harm minimisation: just say no

Miranda Devine

June 19, 2008

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/harm-mi...3770730340.html

 

Three weeks ago, on May 27, Tony and Angela Wood went to a Chinese restaurant to mark what would have been their daughter Anna's 28th birthday, had she lived. As they do each year, they ordered her favourite meal, Peking duck, and remembered the 15-year-old girl who died in 1995 after taking ecstasy for the first time.

 

But while her parents have been touring schools and spreading the message that illegal drug use is never safe, Anna Wood was being co-opted without their permission as a poster girl of the drug harm-minimisation lobby, which has shaped debate about drug use in Australia for 25 years - but is losing credibility as contrary evidence piles up.

 

The Woods say drug educators went to schools after Anna's death and told students it wasn't ecstasy that killed her but an overdose of water. And less than two weeks after her death, Alex Wodak, the director of St Vincent's Hospital's Alcohol and Drug Service and a cannabis legalisation advocate, wrote a two-page letter to the Wood family to urge them to become harm-minimisation lobbyists. He wanted them to meet politicians Bob Carr, John Howard and Paul Keating and argue against "tough law enforcement policies" so as to "at least make something good come out of Anna's death".

 

The Woods, who wear buttons bearing Anna's picture and the message "Say No To Drugs", were upset by his approach.

 

But signs that the harm-minimisation lobby's influence may be waning came this week when the NSW Health Minister, Reba Meagher, buckled to angry parents and banned a brochure, Choosing To Use, produced by her Sydney West Area Health Service, which advised year 9 and 10 students "how to keep your head together" if they "choose" to experiment with illegal drugs.

 

Among "a few tips that might help" in the brochure is advice to "use only small amounts and not too often".

 

To be fair, the brochure also states: "The best way to keep your head together is not to use drugs at all." But it immediately goes on: "BUT, if you choose to experiment …"

 

Teenagers expect adults to tell them not to take drugs, says law student, Ryan Hidden, 20, who is also secretary of the Recovered Drug Users League.Instead he had the same harm-minimisation message pumped into him at school.

 

"Whether it was through drug educators or the school, the perception was that drugs might be banned but there was a way of taking them safely," he said yesterday. "Especially when it comes from people in authority, it reinforces the message you're getting in the playground, that drugs are acceptable under certain circumstances.

 

"You expect that in the playground but not in the classroom. It's not what parents want and it undermines what they are telling their children."

 

At 13, Hidden started smoking marijuana heavily, and later "dabbled" in methamphetamines and ecstasy. He says he became paranoid and suffered "mental health effects". Expelled from school and thrown out of home, he enrolled in Drug Beat, a South Australian rehabilitation centre that required abstinence, not maintenance. He resat his school exams and started university this year.

 

But he remembers that when he tried to get help to stop his drug use at 16, he came up against the laissez faire attitudes of drug counsellors who would never tell him he needed to stop smoking cannabis. Instead they would say: "Make sure you clean your bong regularly," and suggested he might consider limiting his use to weekends.

 

Hidden says the harm-minimisation system has nothing for those who want to be drug-free.

 

"It just wants to keep them trapped in addiction and misery."

 

Tony Wood wasn't surprised by the contents of Choosing To Use this week, either, "because most of the stuff put out by government and drug educators is a little soft on drugs", he said yesterday.

 

"Parents we talk to are really frustrated. They've become hostile about what their children are being told. We've got to start putting out pamphlets and positive messages to show kids how to say no to drugs. Kids really want to know how to say 'no'."

 

Under siege this week, the Sydney West Area Health Service issued a statement justifying the publication of the drugs brochure on the grounds that "studies consistently demonstrate the majority of young people will experiment with and use alcohol or other drugs at some time". This was a sneaky non sequitur attempting to equate alcohol and drugs, the first step to drug legalisation.

 

Of course, most young people will use alcohol at some time, and we have a hard enough time coping with the harmful consequences. It's legal, available and popular. Most will not use illegal drugs. In fact, cannabis use by 12- to 15-year-olds fell from 15 per cent in 1996 to 6 per cent in 2005, the Australian Secondary School Students' Use of Alcohol and Drug Survey shows.

 

Yet harm minimisers continue to push for legalisation of the drug even while its popularity wanes and medical evidence mounts of the risks of psychosis and depression. The University of Mississippi this week also found cannabis potency has more than doubled since 1983.

 

While Choosing To Use is not quite the recruitment tool for drug dealers some claim, it is a small example of drug education shaped by harm-minimisation lobbyists, whose conservative attitudes have been frozen in time for 25 years. Its underlying message to children is that illegal drug use is tacitly condoned by authorities, and it is relatively safe if you follow expert drug tips.

 

It tiptoes around the notion of "choice", as if terrified of appearing authoritarian. Yet children, even teenagers, are trusting. They expect that if they are contemplating doing something genuinely dangerous, those in authority will try to stop them. After all, the police don't pull over speeding L-platers and say: "Well, if you choose to speed that's your decision, and here are a few tips on doing it safely. Get to know your family speeding history. Speed only in small amounts and not too often. Off you go, son, go for your life."

 

No, when it comes to speeding or parking violations, it's zero tolerance. Why no fear of authoritarianism on overstaying your meter, when the cost in human misery is so inconsequential in comparison?

 

devinemiranda@hotmail.com

 

 

 

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[mull]

Same ol rebuked myths again Miranda.

 

Using Ryan Hidden, a young, reprogrammed meth addict is no help to the bluff either.

[Indycar]

I'd imagine Miranda must've lived a sheltered childhood. Because kids of my era, if you told em not to do something. As sure as shit, the kids would dive into it, boots 'n all. Using scare tactics, just boosts the fun of it all. So infact, with all the scare mongering that she comes out with, is actually promoting drug use.

 

I'd imagine what the harm minimization mob's are trying to, is lay all the facts on the table for the kids to see. If the kids know what to expect, it'll takes some of the fun away from it, and fair chance they'll possibly give it a miss. But if they do dabble in it, they'll have some helpful advice to use drugs wisely, if they choose to do so. How that approach creates a problem for Miranda, i have no idea...

 

The more that comes from this shelia, the more my heart goes out to her. All those missed opportunities thru life with this "just say no" attitude. I hope your attitude/opinion changes in time Miranda "Missed Opportunities" Devine, cause there's a fair chance you going to miss out on a lot, that life has to offer.

 

[Rocker]

Devine is anything but devine.

 

In my opinion she is the complete wowser.

 

Further more, she appears to be one of those people who are terrified someone 'out there' might be actually enjoying themselves.

[nimrod13]

Recently released government report stated that they belive between 20,000 to 75,000 ecstasy tablets are consumed in Australia every week! The facts are that more people overdose and die on paracetamol every year.Ryan Hidden,what a wanker.He pulled three cones and took meth once and now hes an expert.Ryan was always going to have mental problems,THC or not.Just because these two couldnt handle their drugs we all have to suffer!

[Token Jet]

Harm minimisation: just say no

Miranda Devine

June 19, 2008

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/harm-mi...3770730340.html

 

 

After all, the police don't pull over speeding L-platers and say: "Well, if you choose to speed that's your decision, and here are a few tips on doing it safely. Get to know your family speeding history. Speed only in small amounts and not too often. Off you go, son, go for your life."

 

 

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You cant compare the police pulling somebody over for speeding with a brochure put out by a health service. Speeding L platers are stopped so that they don't cause an accident hurting other innocent people, and thats the equivalent of getting high?

 

The relevant authorities do provide a safe environment for people to speed and encourage people to vent their energy there, race tracks, drag strips and car shows.

 

No, when it comes to speeding or parking violations, it's zero tolerance.

 

Yeah well you should go to mount panorama in September with a placard saying "Stop the race, theres no more speeding"

and see how you go

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

The reality is, even the stupid allaogoy they used withthe speeeding motorist is relevent to our beliefs.

 

IF it is established this driver will continue to speed, that nothing in history has shown that you wont stop them, then yes it is prudent to tach them how to hande a a car out of control, to teach tem how to avoid more dangerous situations than others while driving fast...

 

The anallogy isn't that dumb.

they are

 

I started using drugs in grade 8, and I being 12 months ahed of my usual class-mates, made me just on 12 years old, by a matter of 1 month only. The message then on how to keep ya head together was "just say no", and 18 months later I was so screwed up, I'd used everything that was commonly available then, dropped out of shcool, ran away, was sleeping in bus and train stations, in winter I slept in laundromats, which back in them olden days stayed open all night, and the warmth was a great saver on cold nights. I was one of a very few people sleeping on the streets in brisbane those days. I wish I had a counselling type person teling me to use only periodically and go steady. Instead, I just had to hide from authorities or be arrested. It's a great step forward when people can accpet "this" or "taht" is going to happen anyway, now how can we make it safe for those in it? Like prostitution. I'm no fac on people having to sell their bodies, it sadens me, right through to sickens me, but legalising it is one way to protect those who have either choosen, or have become trapped in it. Just throwing them in jail is no answer.

Dranconian ways should be left in draconian times.

 

Maybe it's just me, but you catch more flies with honey I have heard.

 

HOWEVER- it is their dead daughter and people should be careful at how they treat her memory for the family sake of the poor kid.

 

rob

[kiloppo]

Same old bullshit IMO.

 

I feel sorry for the parents, but it wouldn't of happened if they told kids the risk of doing ecstasy/coke instead of making drugs public enemy number 1. If they told kids what to do in bad situations etc. they wouldn't have kids overdosing on pills.

 

also if the government controlled the quality of drugs, there wouldn't be as much bad quality stuff out there. That's the main cause of trouble among drug users.