Reducing harm to children!

This is the very dear subject to many people including myself even though I don't have any children. To reduce the access and therefore harm of drug use early on in development is important. Even though some may call me pro-drug, I am simply pro-right to choose however, children haven't developed proper ability to make informed decisions yet along with the brain is still doing lots of work to get ready for adulthood ahead and if drug use can be prevented before the age of around 18-20 depending on the drug and even older for some other one like heroin, cocaine, alcohol and amphetamines.

Hallucinogens could likely be take safely by individuals around even 16 under the right circumstances and for personal growth rather then just getting "fucked up". Cannabis certainly could be used at the age of 16 for beneficial reasons instead of leading teenagers to drink which is even worse for the brain development. We know of serious implications of development being impeded by alcohol in the womb, why would it be any different while the youth is developing? Some children are drinking as young as 6-8 years old, imagine the harm to the brain.

It seems it is impossible for us to manage to stop youth from using drugs which includes alcohol, caffeine, sugar and even video games. We however, need to find ways to reduce the harm and help them use them in a moderate fashion rather then just going overboard on them as at that age, they haven't learned impulse control yet like an adult. It isn't the same for a adult to smoke meth or a youth as the youth doesn't have the experience of life yet and can't determine appropriate responses to something so powerful.

Remember when you were young, 17 years old and you got dumped for the first time. It was intense. It was horrible, unlivable and yet you did. You got through it and survived and even though the next dumping wasn't nice, it certainly wasn't as powerful as the first. Think of having a drug while 17 for the first time, it is going to hit you like a ton of bricks and due to biology and lack of experience to understand this effect, you will think you want more and more as drugs do trigger our pleasure-reward system as does sex, food, and exercise.

A recent brain scan showed a person on heroin and another on sex and both were identical. It isn't the drug we get high on or the activity, it is our brain. This for a young person who hasn't gotten much life experience yet takes this event of drug the drug for the first time to be much more powerful then if they were to use it while an adult over the age of 25 years old when the brain is completed its entire development and impulse control is at full throttle. The brain will realize the drug use isn't all it is cracked up to be and much prefer to be enjoying the activities it already enjoys like life.

However, if this 25 year old doesn't like life and is depressed, unhappy with work and not really in love, the drugs have a different effect too. It is more like as a child and the 25 year old will want to use again and again just like the youth. Luckily, they are easier to intervene with and hopefully manage to get through the blip in the road. For a youth, the blip in the road is more like a giant wall as they haven't learned to climb over it yet.

Harm to children is real and sadly they are using drugs despite programs like DARE that only like to the children. Yes, DARE tells us marijuana is harmful and in the same breath talk about injecting heroin which really is not comparable in any way. We need to teach them self control, self love and goal setting. But do we?

Reduce drug addiction in the future we need to think of the children now. DARE doesn't work. We are not reducing addiction but only seeing it going up especally for video games. This isn't something that they are just going to grow out of as they won't know what to grow into. They will lack direction, interests and social skills. We need to love and find compassion to love who aren't coping well in our society and this really is to be expected as we see childhood trauma rising not decreasing and this is the route of all addiction.

If we end childhood trauma, we can reduce and even end addiction. Bold statement but true!!