I may have recently heard one of the most optimistic phrases since "Mission Accomplished."
Someone was reading one of those lists of things that people should do instead of doing drugs.
Now, there are undoubtedly a lot of reasons not to do drugs, and there are probably a lot more pleasurable things to do with your time, but one suggestion in particular stood out.
Ready?
Here it is:
"Read a book."
All I can figure is that the most optimistic librarian in the world somehow got on the panel to decide what activities are more fun than getting high...
...or that the panel was high when they made up the list.
Oh, books are good things -- heck, they're great things. We should all read more books, and we should all do less drugs -- but I don't think that's exactly the decision process most people make. It's not like there are hordes of heroin users who are only shooting up because the next Harry Potter book hasn't come out yet.
And I don't think if Stephen King stopped publishing novels that crack use would suddenly explode. If so, it's ironic that one man's addiction to creating novels of hellish worlds is what's saving us from a hellish world of addicts.
In fact, I don't think the two are necessarily mutually exclusive. I guess I can't be sure that I've seen someone read a book while getting high, but I'm pretty sure it could happen. Who knows, it might even make reading some books better (Ann Coulter comes to mind).
I'm just saying that if you're trying to give people alternatives to lure them away from drugs, you better make 'em good.
I don't think the internal debate "Should I get high? Well, if I don't get high I could read a book..." is gonna get very far.
The only way this might work is if...
(1) the person contemplating drugs is very gullible and
(2) they've never tried drugs before and
(3) they've already tried reading
In this case, they might think "Why go to the trouble using drugs if it's even less fun than reading a book. Hell, the library is free..."
If you want to teach kids the downside of using drugs, try something a little more direct. Maybe have'em watch COPS, or check out "Faces of Meth" - you know, something that kinda reinforces the right image.
Anyway, I just wanted to point that out. I think I'm gonna call it a night.
Maybe I'll read a little...
..unless I can think of something better to do.
Funny you mention Stephen King in your article, since he had an addiction to drink and drugs.
ReplyDeleteFor a nice interview with King on this topic, see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/11/12/svking12.xml