How universal values can help in drug abuse prevention.

Why should they prevent drugs? I really really cannot find a connection between drugs abuse and justice, or ecology for that matter.

Diamantis -- are there any data to support that idea? I doubt it. Kids use drugs because they are available and because during adolescence they don't have the foresight to fully consider the potential consequences. Ideals have nearly zilch to do with this.

Peace and freedom to cure drug abuse. Don't think that would work, probably make it worse. Look at the 1960s

Remove the need for self-medication (all drug taking is self-medication) and your 'drug problem' becomes moot. If you want to rid the world of 'painkillers' and 'mood elevators', rid the world of 'pain'. Rid the human psyche of the desire to see what's 'behind the curtain', and you can get rid of psychadelics and other entheogens.
Removing fascist and repressive/oppressive laws is another solution to most 'drug related problems'.

Drug use, legal or otherwise, does tend to increase under economic/social pressure. Drug use in the 60's, and especially in the 70's, can be linked to the various Cold War concerns and economic crises.

What we really need is honest education regarding drugs. School kids are taught all sorts of absurd things about drugs in school. We need honesty, not politically motivated education.

Drugs will be less and less glamorous to young people, and to all people, when honest information is disseminated, and when governments refrain from situations which cause their population's anxiety.

I agree with the education changes. People need to know the affects of these on their brains normality, and they need to be aware of the potential set backs by using these quick fixes all to regularly. There are times where these drugs can be viewed as necessary. Such as pain killers for serious injuries or post operations, and anti-depressants to reduce chance of suicide in a patient for the short term until better therapeutic treatment can be provided. But people need to grow a disgust for self-medication and substance dependency. Education must propagate this, it should have by now. Everyone needs to push the message that life is meant to be lived organically, and this is proven by there not being any widely accessible substance that the human brain specifically reacts to, to make this otherwise.

YouTube - Brain On Drugs

What kind of drugs are we talking about preventing people from using?

Yes, Pangloss, advertisements like the one you post are a large part of the problem.

What's worse is that most young people laugh at these commercials; how could they not? These commercials are silly propaganda. But isn't that the danger? That we laugh when the government says something? What happens when the government says something honest about drugs, how will these kids, having listened to sick joke after sick joke, know to pay attention? Like the story about the boy who cried wolf.

No one knows....

I've done a lot of drugs for a lot of different reasons and there are only a few I don't like(heroin/crack/meth/pcp). I would never suggest anyone to try them because that's not for me to influence. I'll tell them how I feel about them though and let them decide. You guys use philosophy like a lot of people use drugs...to get a different point of view or just take a break from reality...which in itself can be dangerous for obvious reasons. I don't agree that it is the job of a government to regulate what we choose to put into our bodies either, I think they just made a class of criminals where before there had been none(users/drug dealers/drug traffickers). I think it's just a little naive to think that you don't have values because you use or have used drugs and that's the mentality that got us here anyways. Oh yeah, and thanks for posting that video, I've got the munchies and it gave me a great idea!