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Yeah right... I don't ahve any thing to-do during the summer except babysitting my sister and her friends every Monday and Thursday evening.

And I found this website: Influences | AboveTheInfluence.com

And I found a lot information that I don't know before... and it's very important for us.. (teens).

It's about avoiding drugs, pressures, types of drugs and you can give your voice too.

It is important for me right now coz recently I found out my classmates smoke pot during lunch time in the bathroom (it is girls -good girl gone bad I guess)

Sometimes the pops all around me and I should say 'no' to them... which is a bit risk-y for me...

Cool, awesome, stunning website..

Recommended. Thx :);)

Ahh..they've got some good stuff. Interesting commercials, too. That "Human Puppet" one is VERY true. Especially in college. Kids do all sorts of things to each other when they've passed out. And...if you really wanna hear some stories...>.> Apparently, one of my friends' hair caught fire and he didn't even care because he was so high. My other friend had to put it out for him. T_T

Ydouthink.com

There's also Ydouthink, who creates all those bizarre ads, like the girl licking trash cans and tires, to promote a smoke-free lifestyle.

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However, I do think it's important to realize that what you do is your decision and the same for them. I don't agree with peer pressure at all, or doing drugs. But that's because of my own personal beliefs. For others, it's entirely different and they are well aware of what they are doing. Personally, I respect their decisions as long as they respect mine. My friends don't drag me into their drug use and I don't go off on them on why I think drugs are stupid. I'm more likely to go off on somebody that's gonna be a butt and blow their smoke directly into my mouth while I'm trying to talk to somebody, though. It's just plain rude.

I don't agree with doing drugs or even smoking. Too many bad experiences with people I have been around when they were high or under the influence of other things. Back when I was in school, they had anti-drug programs that would show you exactly what the drugs did to your body. There really isn't a way to stop people from abusing their bodies but they should at least know the facts before doing so.

I see nothing wrong with doing marijuana if that's what you want to do. If you don't, then that's fine too and you shouldn't be pressured. So long as you use responsibly, marijuana isn't dangerous.

For the most part, I dislike such websites/advertisements because they either don't provide enough or accurate information or they rely purely on using fear tactics to try and get their point across. In my experience, telling people not to do something just makes them more curious about it. I'd find a program like Mystic mentioned where kids are taught exactly how different substances affect their bodies to be much more useful than just trying to scare them. With the information at hand, they will have the ability to make an educated decision about their future.

For the record, I drink and I smoke pot. I'm also on my college's dean's list every semester and was on honor roll during my public school years from eighth grade up through my senior year. I work and am a productive member of society. It's the idiots who can't handle their own shit who cause the problems and make everyone else look bad. Also a number of things that are considered hard drugs now had legitimate purposes back when they were first introduced to the masses. For example, heroin was derived from morphine and used as a pain killer, cocaine was also used in dentists' offices as a local anesthetic. As with many discoveries or inventions, things don't always turn out pretty.

Okay, I love you for this. So much. I agree with everything that you just wrote.

I'm 22, and I drink, smoke cigarettes, and smoke pot. A number of my friends do too, and they're all great people and students, and are the nicest people ever. None of them are burnouts. Like you said, Vix, it's the people that don't research what they're doing/taking and can't handle themselves that get hurt and screw things up for everyone else that can handle what they're doing.

The fear tactics that many schools and web sites use do far more harm than good. The extreme fear and EVERYTHING WILL KILL YOU AND IMMEDIATELY MAKE YOU A JUNKIE message is really damaging. All it takes is for the individual to meet one person that does some kind of drug responsibly that isn't a crazy burnout, and every anti-drug fear message is suddenly called into question. It would be so much better if the effects of each drug and exactly how they affect the body, short term and long term, were honestly laid out. Kids wouldn't try things out of curiosity so much if the mystery of it was taken away.

I can personally attest, at college, the people that go on benders and black out from drinking too much are almost always the people that grew up with strict parents that forbade them from ever even thinking about drinking or misbehaving. Myself, and others that grew up with open, liberal parents, never saw drinking or drugs as this big, mysterious, rebellious thing, and so are far less likely to go nuts with things and do things that we can't handle. When the mystery is taken away and subjects like drugs and alcohol are handled honestly and maturely, they cease to be such a big deal. I drink and smoke, but rarely if ever to excess or to a level that hurts myself.

I can't really stress enough how it's ignorance and hype about drugs that leads to harm.

@Aetera: Amen, sister! You speak the gospel truth!

Also, I was one of those kids with strict parents. Well, my mom was strict and my dad doesn't give a shit - he asks me for pot brownies :lol: But yeah, being told that something is "bad" all your life just makes you curious when you're actually exposed to it. At the end of the day, having common sense is the best way to protect yourself. Unfortunately, most people lack that nowadays.

Yeah, it's sad that the people are severely lacking in common sense these days. Honestly, the big expensive ads and that stupid "TRUTH" campaign are so unnecessary. Seriously, just go to the teens and calmly explain, "this is what the drug will make you feel like. This is what happens if you take too much of it, this is how it will affect your body now, and this is how continuing to use it will affect your body."

That's all you need to do. That's it. If they decide to still do it after knowing all of that, they were going to do it anyway, and at least now know exactly what they're getting into. Explaining it like this removes the "forbidden fruit" status from it, which is why so many misinformed people dive into it and hurt themselves in the first place.

Oh, the other thing that I hate about the way that anti-drug campaigns are held in schools right now? It paints all drinkers/smokers/drug users as EVIL and trying to make you EVIL too. My mom ran a daycare out of our house for years, and one of the kids was in 6th or 7th grade. He mentioned how he hated his aunt, because she smoked. That was his entire reasoning. I asked him about it, and no, she wasn't mean. She was apparently a really nice, friendly woman who happened to smoke cigarettes, so was thus a bad woman and deserving of nothing less than hate. It was that easy to him, and none of the other middle-schoolers saw anything wrong with his reasoning. She smoked, so she, as a person, was to be hated. It's demonizing the people along with the drugs.

Oh, and for your amusement, #5. (obviously not a serious support of my arguement, but funny)
5 Retarded Health Campaigns That Backfired (Hilariously) | Cracked.com

@Aetera: That is pretty darn funny XD I hear that somewhere else before too but I can't remember where. DARE was a pretty bad program to have in place. I hate how schools handle "taboo" topics like drinking, drugs, and sex. I rather have my child be taught facts and not propaganda.

I should have added to my first post that I believe that people do have the right to do whatever they want I just don't want anything really to do with it. I mean yes, I have tried weed and yes, I used to smoke often enough. Weed really is not that bad compared to LEGAL substances. I really have not heard of anyone dying from smoking weed. Someone correct me if I am wrong here. O.o;

I've just seen some really messed up things with harder drugs and those I really am more against. But people are going to do what they want anyway. As long as they don't go out and hurt people to feed their drug addition then they can do what they want with their bodies.

I'm not gonna lie, substance abuse runs in my family. My dad used to do heroin and cocaine but it never interfered with his responsibilities. He's always worked hard to support us, has been faithful to my mother, and is a damn good father. He never sugarcoated things around me, he told me exactly what he experienced when he was on hard drugs and other things he did in his youth such as getting locked up for almost killing someone and almost killing someone while he was in prison. He never treated me as though I had to strictly follow any abstinence rules, hell, he wants to take me to Amsterdam someday. It was more like "this is what I did, this is what happened, learn from my mistakes so you can avoid some of the pitfalls that I hit."

The only thing you need to keep you off drugs is self control and common sense.

Don't be a follower.

Of course, that's easier said than done for most teenagers. :l