The excessive use of drugs and alcohol is a major problem in most countries around the world, and as many governments try to fight against that plague, not many succeed to restrain the number of deaths and diseases due to the abuse of those products. Therefore, many people try to do something, by sensibilising the population with advertising campaigns, signs and papers everywhere. I think that a global solution could be possible through the Internet : why won’t we try to create a wide social network focused on the abusive use of drugs and booze.
We’re not talking about one of those preventive sites that try to make you stop to drink, by telling you that it is wrong and bad for your health, because everybody knows it. The solution could be found by creating a real social network, gathering different actors on the subject : people who already suffered from alcohol and drugs and who can talk about it as witnesses, people who use it and need to know a bit more about the ‘long term’ effects, and testimonies from families destroyed by that.
The message then wouldn’t be “Don’t drink” or “Don’t use drugs”, but more ‘Learn how to drink” and “learn what you can use and what you can’t”. The main problem, I think is that more and more websites give expert advices, from doctors and politicians that aren’t really connected to the “real” society. Sure, they give you good advice but a young alcoholic or a drug user doesn’t want to hear that what he does is stupid, illegal, or that they are slowly dying, they need to understand how they can act to reverse the situation.
Let’s take an example, imagine that I’m young (I’m actually young), I drink to much at every party I go and I take the habit to drive back home at the end of the night. That’s not such a big deal for me, I think I can deal with it. The commercials I’ll watch on television won’t make me change because I think I’m capable of driving even when I drunk a little bit (or even a little bit more). On the contrary, if I spend one hour discussing on this social network with a mother who lost his child in a car accident because of a drunk guy, and that she explains to me how it destroyed her family, how she lost what she loved the most, I may understand how my acts can ruin somebody else’s life.
The idea would be to create a link between the “already victim” and the “victim to come”, for both of them to keep in touch, and to create a strong relation, in order to heal : the mother could therefore find reasons for the death of his child and the young “alcoholic” could find a real reason to reduce his drinking parties or even to regulate himself. Same for drugs, a simple image, or a video won’t prevent you to try some drugs and become an addict. Talk to a guy who destroy his whole life, just because he once decided that it wasn’t such a big deal to try it.
Here is an example of how the website could be organised : you just need to create a login, but you have the choice to leave personal information or not, the only thing is that you need to specify if you need to be advised or if you want to advise. The website could then generate a direct link between a user (or many) and a victim of the same product. Example : I smoke weed, and I’m starting to be afraid of the effects it could have, the website connects with a guy who suffered from this problem and can talk with you, because, of course, he lived the same addiction. He won’t just give you the regular advices or restrictions that you can hear on television by some politics who never ever smoked weed or anything else. The idea is also that you don’t especially need to be a member, you can also come and talk with people on forums, and keep your identity private, because it can be hard sometimes to reveal who you are and talk about such difficult things.
One last ideas could be to create a link with people from the entire world for the drug users from wealthy countries to understand how the use of it is sometimes more than a game, it may be a necessity to face a really hard life. For example, connecting people from France or USA with Brazilian boys and girls who use it because they live on the streets and that they have no other choice.
The main idea of this concept would be to tell the users : “We’re not here to judge, we’re not here to tell you what to do, we’re just here to help you if you need it and to give you an other option, not as an expert, but as a person who suffered from the same problem”
I can’t say if this idea could work, but it may help more people than simply telling than by a commercial that what they do is wrong, and that they are a plague for the society.
Posted in Because Politics are not only for old men !
