...their users are criminalised, except for those drugs which are an integral part of the economy, as with alcohol and tobacco. The 'War on Drugs' is immensely damaging and is used by police as another excuse to arrest political dissenters.

xXx

Drug Free World are a scientology front group

Yup, it's a Scientology front group like Narcononon. Very bizarre that they'd be plugging themselves on Indymedia.

Frankly, would rather my kids dabbled in drugs than such an dangerous cult with a history of fraud, persecution and mistreatment.

What group do this teenagers come from in society.can we asume alcohol is in the booklet, drink causes so much trouble, familys being torn apart,hospitals on a friday night.
I have looked at these sort of booklets in the past,and the money spend on this sort of anti drug culture and free world,is a waste of money.
Start by getting rid of drink first, i suspect government earn to much revenue from this.
Governments do not want our streets free from drugs,who would they be giving the asbo to

Of course teens need information about drugs, but the information needs to be unbiased and not pushing a particular perspective. The "Foundation for a Drug-Free World" at least has a partially honest title - it admits bias up-front and young adults reading their material will notice that. Of course if the earlier comments are accurate, it would be more honest to call the group "The Scientology Foundation for a Drug-Free World" so that readers can understand which set of nutters are funding the propaganda.

Furthermore, all people need better unbiased information about the drugs war, and how the tough penalties in the US system is keeping a predominantly black section of the populace in a poverty-stricken underclass. This serves elite interests very well - not only does it help keep money badly distributed throughout the country, it also helps to build the prison/military complex which keeps ordinary Americans afraid. To some extent this pattern is repeated throughout the rest of the "free world".

It is some many times more cost-effective (I think the factor is 10 times) to treat addicted drug-users than to engage in anti-drugs military activity or aerial crop-poisoning, as has happened in Colombia and elsewhere. Chomsky's writing has much to offer on this point, and yet this information remains substantially well concealed in the media "debate" on offer to the US and European public. It is of note that the CIA has been caught drugs-smuggling themselves, yet this fact rarely enters the discussion either.

We need to start recognising that the drugs war was lost a long time ago, and that criminalising large sections of a population for the use of drugs acts in very specific capitalist interests. Unfortunately these policies get substantial support from US/UK voters for genuine (if misguided) concerns over health and crime i.e. the discussion as it is framed persuades people to vote against their own interests (it worsens drug problems and it worsens crime). It should be noted that many countries who have implemented severe criminal policies against drugs have done so due to US pressure rather than an undiluted concern for the health of their citizenry.

Lastly, messages about the futility of the war on drugs should ideally penetrate the mainstream debate, so that drugs of all kinds can eventually be decriminalised. Such a position is of course a long way from the right-wing tabloids, but with some persistence, messages of this kind can be used to counter the elite messages that are currently prevalent. Since they are keen to present "straight talk", I wonder if Julieta and Spencer would care to update their leaflet with this information?

[Note to IMCers - please don't delete this story - the comments will balance the article out and it's great anti-propaganda food for search engines]