“Just Say No” Just Doesn’t Work
In the 1980s, the White House declared a “War on Drugs,” with First Lady Nancy Reagan popularizing the slogan, “Just Say No.” An advertising campaign was targeted at young people using recreational drugs, giving them strategies for opting out when pressured by friends. The DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program was brought into schools and taught to students beginning in grade four. These initiatives have had mixed results. While both certainly increased the public’s awareness of the dangers of abusing drugs, a 1994 study by RTI International, a nonprofit organization located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, found that “DARE imparts a large amount of information, but has little or no impact on students’ drug use.”
If “Just Say No” wasn’t the best program to combat recreational drug use in the 1980s, resurrecting it in 2017 to combat the opioid/heroin epidemic is the worst idea yet to be presented by the Trump Administration. President Trump shared a personal story about his brother, Fred, who was an alcoholic. Responding to Fred’s pleas, Trump says he has never taken a drink. He points to this as proof that people can “just say no” and avoid becoming addicted. The White House is planning an ad campaign against the opioid epidemic. “I think that’s going to end up being our most important thing,” Trump said. “Really tough, really big, really great advertising, so we get people before they start.”
While President Trump should be commended for his self-restraint, the White House’s plan shows a lack of understanding about how this opioid/heroin epidemic has unfolded. (This is certainly surprising after a White House panel, headed by Jared Kushner and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, was appointed to study the problem.) Many young people who become addicted were first prescribed opioids, painkiillers, by a physician. Often these drugs are given to student athletes after a sports injury. Parents trust doctors to use good judgment and professional knowledge when prescribing medication, not to start their children on the road to addiction. But in many cases, that’s what happens. “Just Say No” doesn’t work when patients have to stand up to a medical professional.
President Trump isn’t the only one touting this “Just Say No” mantra. On October 27, an episode of the CBS police drama, Blue Bloods, involved a young woman overdosing on heroin. Police Officer Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) administered Narcan, a medication that can reverse the effects of an overdose. She’s transported to the hospital where she’s given a Narcon drip and revived. She tells Jamie she was prescribed painkillers after she sustained an MCL injury to her knee while playing soccer. When the pills ran out, she began using heroin. When she’s discharged, Jamie takes her out of the hospital in handcuffs. At the precinct, her parents are upset that she will be held overnight in jail. But before she can be put in a cell, she passes out and dies. Turns out, the hospital misjudged the amount of heroin in her system when treating her with Narcan. Rather than being upset that the young woman died, Jamie’s supervisors are upset that she wasn’t locked up immediately, but allowed to visit with her parents.
When the Reagans gather for dinner, Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) and his father, Henry Reagan (Len Cariou), push the “Just Say No” philosophy, looking back to their days on the streets combatting drug use. Those were different times, different drugs. Erin Reagan (Bridgette Moynihan) points to the success of the campaign against drunk driving, endorsing the idea that an advertising campaign could help young people avoid heroin. The situations are not comparable. The writers apparently did little research on the opioid/heroin epidemic. Otherwise, how could they get so many things wrong?
What the episode did get right was that the young woman first had been prescribed painkillers after a sports injury. But the storyline reinforced the stigma suffered by those battling addiction, that this young woman was responsible for her addiction and she deserves to spend the evening in jail, not be treated for her addiction. Would Jamie have been locking up someone who had a heart attack after eating a cheeseburger? Until we begin to treat addiction as a health problem and not a crime, we will not make any headway in turning this tragedy around and saving lives.
Our tax dollars should not be paying for an advertising campaign that failed in the past and holds little chance of succeeding this time around. Instead, we need to put those funds towards better treatment for those suffering from addiction.
Charlene Giannetti, editor of Woman Around Town, is a co-producer of the upcoming film, 19 Daniel Highway, inspired by Linda Lajterman’s Life After You: What Your Death from Drugs Leaves Behind. Linda’s son, Danny, died after using heroin laced with fentanyl.
Top photo: Bigstock
