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Fight Against P on “Hard hitting anti-smoking ads”

New hard-hitting television advertisements showing the devastating impact smoking has on the lives of real New Zealanders have been approved for screening on our TV's, in an effort to help prevent some of the many smoking related deaths each year.

We also have hard-hitting anti-alcohol ads on our TV's for the same reason.

And yet Ross Bell of the NZ Drug Foundation has vetoed the screening of hard-hitting anti-drug ads like the Montana Meth Ads, which are used successfully in the US to educate the public against Methamphetamine use, “in case they encourage some young people to try P.”

New Zealanders need these anti-drug ads just as much as the others, as a tool to help educate parents and their children. Mike Sabin's report to the Law and Order Select Committee tell us that much of the United States National Drug Control Policy is built around a philosophy that includes reaching young people with this kind of message “in an effort to ensure that this generation will experience lower rates of addiction.”

But the New Zealand Drug Foundation believes the images used in the Montana Meth ads are too extreme and may backfire. They say research shows ads like these raise curiosity amongst people who wouldn't normally take illegal drugs.

Fight Against P suggests that there will always be people who are risk-takers – but there are many more who, with their parents' guidance, deserve to be made wise before the event and given the ability to make informed decisions when illicit substances are offered to them.

A semester of Drug Education at High School (which parents don't have the benefit of) isn't enough. In the heat of the moment when P is being offered, these lessons are forgotten. Parents need to be able to constantly reinforce this message.

Methamphetamine use may not cause many deaths in NZ, but the effects of it are costing tax payers millions of dollars; families are being destroyed by the anti-social behaviour of P users, and our Courts and Jails are filled with cases resulting from P abuse.

If the Government deems it good enough for us to be subjected to hard-hitting anti-smoking and anti-alcohol messages, then the anti-drug message must also be included.

Our families deserve to be informed of the consequences of bad decision-making relating to all three of these scourges on our society today.

ENDS

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