C.E.P.T.A.
The CAMPAIGN for EFFECTIVE PREVENTION and TREATMENT of ADDICTION.
5a. EFFECTIVE PREVENTION
TRAINING vs DRUGS
EDUCATION
THE FACTS and
THE FICTION
In the nineteen hundreds,
knowledgeable people conceived drugs as being chemically manufactured medication
or disorientating substances, usually poisonous to a greater or lesser degree
and distinct from traditional medicines which were understood as based on
extracts and concoctions from natural sources such as plants and herbs, etc.
Later on, the word ‘drugs’ also
started to be used to describe substances which could ‘put you out’ such as
chloroform, ether and substances like opium, the characteristics of such
substances being pain-free pleasurable disorientation, intoxication and
floating dreaming sensations, as well as a ‘not here and now’ condition of
being what today we call “drugged”.
The early chemical pharmaceutical
industry, in order to have its equally dangerous products differentiated from
drugs with a criminal reputation like opium, hemp and cocaine, started to
describe their output as “ethical” drugs.
More recently, chemical substances intended to be ingested by human
beings have fallen into a few groups.
Vitamins, minerals and other
nutrients are recognised as “food supplements”, substances such as cannabis and
heroin are generally classed as “illegal” drugs, alcohol and tobacco are
classified as “licensed drugs”, whilst the products of the pharmaceutical
industry are mainly called “prescription” drugs.
Medicines are now seen as any substance
which, by one means or another, is introduced into the body with a view to
removing the individual from an unwanted physical condition, and
the term 'medicine' is generally held to apply to those substances which stimulate,
assist or reinforce the body's own natural defences and self-healing
capabilities.
On the other
hand, the modern meaning of ‘medical drug' is any substance, generally
understood to be of a toxic or poisonous nature, but which nevertheless, by one
means or another, is introduced into the body with a view to removing the
individual from an unwanted physical, mental or personal condition, and the
term 'drug' is usually taken to mean those substances which work by metabolically
enforcing some other condition.
Therefore the major difference
between medicines and drugs is that, whilst a medicine attempts to work in agreement with the body's own
natural functions, a drug attempts to
enforce a prescribed or "desired" condition upon the body,
mind or person - and this applies to illicit, legal, licensed and prescription
drugs.
Such an enforcement attempt is
resisted by the body to the degree that the drug causes upset to the body's
natural chemistry. Unfortunately, because
of the gross variations in upset which can occur from person to person and,
because of the variations which can occur for each person from one set of
circumstances to another and from one time to another - the effects of a drug can
never be fully predicted for anyone at any time.
This is true of the increasing range
of intoxicating substances, both illegal drugs and prescription drugs, which
have reached the consumer marketplace since World War II, all of which were
soon discovered to be dangerous to human life, yet at the same time often
attractive because of effects similar to that of the euphoria caused by
alcohol, and also attractive because of the way they handled physical
conditions such as pain and mental states like anxiety and depression.
As more and more of the population
started to use substances like ‘pot’ (cannabis) and ‘speed’ (amphetamines), and
as the psychiatric industry introduced LSD, and as drug induced accidents,
illnesses and deaths became more prevalent, the concerned parent and teacher
activity of “drug prevention training” started to develop to educate not only
children but also their parents in the dangers of drug use.
With the advent of injected heroin,
coupled with the appearance of HIV, AIDS and hepatitis, it was quickly
recognised that injecting with a hypodermic needle recently used by another
addict was an act very likely to spread the infection carried by one or other
of the needle’s earlier users into those who followed. Clearly this permitted an increase in the possible
harm to drug users of their habit, and so a system to encourage the exchanging
of once used needles for clean ones was introduced.
This, along with other measures to
reduce the danger to committed addicts, was dubbed “harm reduction” because
that was what it did. However, what was
originally a very straightforward ‘harm reduction’ idea has now been warped by
the psychs and pharmas in two main ways.
They have tried to justify damaging
failing interventions - such as methadone and Subutex based “habit management”
– as a form of so-called ‘harm reduction’, when in fact harm to addicts is
increased by such ‘treatments’.
But, more dangerously still, whilst
‘harm reduction’ made sense when applied to committed drug users, they are now
intensively promoting it to children who have never tried drugs and, as a
result, they are delivering ‘drug education’ which mainly conveys that drug
usage is OK as long as you apply ‘harm reduction’ principles.
This, of course, is the first step in promoting liberalisation and
legalisation of drug usage – the fastest route to a nation-wide drugs market.
© Copyright
C.E..P.T.A. and E. Kenneth Eckersley, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 &
2005. All World Rights Reserved