Just Say No

My teen years were spent in the 1980s.
Leg warmers.
Big hair.
Hair bands.
And let us not forget the "Just say No" campaign.

The Just say No campaign was the brainchild of Nancy Reagan, First Lady of President Ronald Reagan.
It was with one goal- Get kids to say no to drugs.
Cause drugs are bad.

And if it happened to have the side effect of kids turning in neighbors or family for doing drugs, that was just peachy.
My mother said that part reminded her of the Nazis getting kids to turn people in.

People were getting raided for growing basil on their windowsill.
Drug task forces were known to destroy houses and possibly killing dogs all on a phone call.
Not even an "I'm sorry" if they were wrong.

A very big part of the campaign were the assemblies.
Former addicts went around to high schools telling their stories.

I can't tell you how many of those I sat through.

I even have a Just say No button somewhere..

Schools spent a good chunk of change bringing these speakers in.

In the end, did it change anything?
Maybe.
Most likely not.

Many of my friends that were so big on the Just say No stuff turned out to be the biggest drug users in the school.
Nothing like now.

When I was in high school, you couldn't just go to a party in your small town and find some pot or cocaine.
You had to go to the bigger towns. the ones that had stop lights.

Now, you can just walk up to the park and get stoned.