An interesting post over at the Drug Law Blog caught my attention tonight.

As a proponent of drug decriminalization, they go into their theory (or one of them) about how to decrease the use, production and abuse of illegal drugs.

One of the areas they argue regards the image of drugs and drug use as being “cool.”

Decriminalization, they argue, can only serve to eliminate the “rebelious” aura surrounding drugs that lends itself to making them cool.

By removing the cool rebelious cliche from people who use drugs or are involved in the supply of those drugs, governments could in effect, make them boring.

Now, while there are a few obvious problems with that line of reasoning, it isn’t something that should be dismissed out of hand. It is difficult to deny that some people become involved with drugs due to peer pressure or the desire for acceptance within certain social groups. Of course, there are other people who get involved for completely different reasons too.

Social and peer pressure is certainly one element of drug use that deserves attention.

The post is worth checking out.

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