What Should I Tell My Kids About Drugs?

When the first edition of David Nutt's book Drugs Without The Hot Air came out in 2012, I absolutely loved it. Informative without being dry, the book offered up evidence-based policy critiques and recommendations in nearly every chapter, while also elaborating upon the many different factors -- biological, psychological, sociocultural, economic, etc. -- that contribute to usage and addiction. Nutt (who currently works at www.drugscience.org.uk) has recently released a revised and updated second edition, which you can purchase here:

Drugs Without The Hot Air (2e)

If you'd like a free sample before you take the purchase plunge -- and how druggy is that, to offer you a taste of that sweet sweet knowledge? -- you can read an excerpt here:

Chapter 14 Book Excerpt

Out of a bounty of information, the last chapter (Chapter 20) specially addresses young people and drugs. Since many of you might be around young people with idle time at this particular moment, why not start a valuable conversation about drug usage? Nutt offers up three big reasons why it's important to discourage drug usage among preadolescent and teenage populations:

• As you as a young person haven't developed tolerance for a drug you've never taken, the first time you use a drug will have a major effect that will most likely never be replicated
• As you as a young person are inexperienced about the world, that major effect will elicit some powerful memories and emotions that may fuel addiction later in life
• Those memories and emotions are likely to build behavioral habits that continued usage will strengthen over time from preadolescence to young adulthood and beyond via mechanisms of positive and negative reinforcement, among other pathways

As far as specific topics of discussion, here's what David Nutt identifies as focus areas:

1. Alcohol and tobacco are drugs

2. All drugs can potentially cause harm as well as pleasure

3. Start telling your kids about drugs from an early age, and be prepared to discuss your drinking and smoking with them

4. Never inject

5. Don't use solvents

6. Don't take drink and drugs at the same time

7. A criminal record could ruin your career

8. Find good sources of advice

9. If you do take drugs (including alcohol and tobacco), be clear why you're doing it

10. If you do get into trouble with drugs, get help quickly

11. If you do use drugs, make sure they don't interfere with your schoolwork

So long as you're honest with the teens and do not provide exceptions or outs, these strategies have been shown to significantly delay the first usage of drugs, and to produce safer drug usage environments in general. The data is clear that the 50-year-old "War on Drugs" (itself an attempt to control African-American and Leftist populations in America) has wasted trillions of dollars and ruined millions of lives, so a newer approach is desperately needed. And it can all start with you.