I remember numerous adverts of cigarettes on TV in the days
gone by. I can still recall the theme songs of some of them like St. Moritz. Most
importantly, what I cannot forget is the statement or warning at the end of
each advert that “the Federal Ministry of Health warns that tobacco smoking is
dangerous to health.” Years later, this
statement changed to something a little different: The Federal Ministry of
Health warns that smokers are liable to die young.
I often wondered the rationale behind such warnings. I thought
the aim was to scare people away from cigarettes. It is not just with
cigarettes. Take a look around and you would see posters, billboards, hideous
pictures and even videos warning people about the dangers of drugs and alcohol,
the aim of course being to deter people from taking such substances.
It is quite obvious that such campaigns have failed. The
scare tactic doesn’t seem to stop people from using drugs. According to a new
study, information about how terrible drugs and alcohol are for your health
doesn't seem to be an effective deterrent. The research also suggests that
users of alcohol and drugs may be more knowledgeable about the health risks
posed by these substances than those who abstain.
The findings, which were drawn from a large sample of Swiss
men, showed that men who frequently used marijuana, alcohol and tobacco sought
out information about the health risks of those substances more than those who
didn't use them.
To see whether health information dissuaded people from
using drugs, the researchers surveyed about 12,000 men around age 20. The
survey included questions about use of marijuana, alcohol and tobacco. In
addition, the researchers asked the men how often they sought information on
the health risks of those substances and how knowledgeable they were about
those risks.
The findings suggest that anti-drug and anti-alcohol prevention
campaigns may need to change tactics. It may be that the long-term
consequences, such as lung cancer or cirrhosis of the liver, are simply too far
away to have much of an impact on people's immediate decisions or it may be
that drug users believe the alcohol or marijuana's benefits outweigh the risks.
Most campaigns are based on the scare tactics
and depend on just dishing out information about the risks of substance abuse. Anti-drug
campaigns should instead be more interactive, and spur critical thinking about
the drugs to change people's attitudes about drug use
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