[hmkpoker]

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Let parents teach their kids about drugs since their opinion will probably be more respected than "the government's"

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By that logic, the government should stay out of science, english and history, since a parent's word on these subjects will usually be more respected than the teacher's, even if it's completely wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather see no drug classes than D.A.R.E., but I think that people could benefit from a well-constructed drug course. There is a lot of information about drugs that parents quite simply can't be expected to know. (For example, how many parents would know to tell their children to test themselves for CYP-2D6 deficiency before experimenting with DXM or MDMA?) Some of it is chemistry, some of it is psychology, some of it is social history.

Drug knowledge is more complicated and less intuitive than sex knowledge, which I think IS reasonable to expect a parent to teach a child. I owe three years of safe, and wholly positive recreational drug use to studying it, and I think it's sad to see other kids hurt themselves because they didn't know what they were doing. (ex. "dude, it's been fifteen minutes and this acid stuff isn't working, I think I need another hit")