It has explored the conflicts of views between how we should treat addicts and deal with their crimes. This is made more poignant with personal accounts of crime, tragedy and despair. If we fail to act now, surely the innocents of today will be the addicts and criminals of tomorrow. Any epidemic needs to be dealt with not only by attending to the outcome, but by treating its causes. Drug addiction is rife because nearly all addicts are first enticed with a drug supplied by another user, and so fall victim to peer pressure.
Most addicts begin to use drugs, usually marijuana, in their school days.
Despite the failure of the education system to prevent the current calamity, there are no positive strategies to change how we educate our children. Experience, and the writings of the United Nations, show that parents hold the key to combating the drug problem. Yet in Australia most remain ignorant and misinformed about drugs and the best course of action. Parents must understand the unpredictable, variable effect of drugs and the insidious psychological dependence they cause. This leads to increasing tolerance, drug graduation, poly drug use and, for some, disaster.