TalkBack 15: Declaring War on ’Just Say No’

From an endgame perspective, the so-called "war on drugs" was never intended to generate the equivalent of permanent prisoners of war in the form of mass incarceration, but that is probably the true face of the political strategy that seemed to directly target my generation. The focus came after the Summer Of Love crowd, hitting instead the younger brothers, sisters, and cousins. It's hard to cite any wins because "Just Say No" as a campaign was far more about the image than the results, pure style over substance. Perhaps it was only about winning electoral strategies. I say this because I first had to resist this facile nonsense before I could commit myself to truly resisting any temptations to "experiment" with drugs. 

Yes, "temptations" is plural. This issue was never so simple that "just say no" was credible advice. And that was just part of the problem that persists today. Other parts include the false equivocation about the relative dangers of different substances, and whether keeping people alive long enough to get the help they truly need was ever among the goals (hint: evidence suggests it was not).

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/15-declaring-war-on-%e2%80%98just-say-no%e2%80%99/