Will the teens who consider swallowing a pill for the first time today be affected at all by the many people who want to stop them? Raising awareness about drugs is high on the agenda – even Maurice Piat’s first sermon as a cardinal touched upon the problem – but will it have an impact on potential first-timers? It’s not likely. 

We are kidding ourselves if we think that a politician, social worker or religious leader talking about the dangers of drugs will make it less likely that teens will try it. Of course it won’t. Every single kid who puts a needle full of heroin into his veins for the first time had heard the warning speeches. It’s just that they thought that the positive side would be worth it. 

Yes, drugs do have a positive side to them. Not acknowledging that they feel amazing at first is counterproductive and dishonest. A dose of heroin probably feels better than getting a promotion at work. Synthetic drugs beat falling in love. The ecstatic feeling from passing a driving test, getting married, holding your newborn? Drugs can make you feel just as good, in the beginning. But, out of fear that openly acknowledging how amazing drugs initially feel could push more people into trying them, we keep quiet about that side of the story. It’s a misguided strategy. 

It’s not helpful to claim that drugs are a bad thing taken by bad people. On the contrary, that dishonest rhetoric is just going to alienate the explorative teens who are in the risk zone of trying them. To win the battle, we need to be brutally honest about what drugs are and what they do. Tell them that the first dose of heroin feels wonderful because of how the brain reacts to it. Explain that it goes straight to the central nervous system. Say that those who take it feel everything more intensely. Tell them the truth – that it is nirvana. Then, tell them what happens next. 

Tell them how quickly they will get addicted. Their teeth will fall out. They will get skin infections all over their faces and bodies, courtesy of their destroyed immune system. They’ll be constantly ill. If they are unlucky with the needle-sharing, they’ll catch HIV and hepatitis. They will be in their 20s, but look like 50-year-olds. Then, tell them about the abstinence that will transform them from people to animals. They will lie and steal to get their next fix, destroying all relationships with anyone they have ever known.  

Because it’s obvious that the costs beat the tiny initial benefit, countries with more experience in anti-drug awareness efforts aren’t scared to tell teens the whole truth. Instead of priests, politicians and teachers preaching, it’s recovered drug addicts that run the campaigns, giving honest accounts of how good the drugs felt – and why they ultimately weren’t worth it. Mauritius needs to show that kind of courage and honestly if it wants a shot at saving risk-zone kids who are only one bad decision away from misery. 

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