Incentives vs Sequestration?

Build a high wall and they'll invent a ladder

There is a story of a farmer who moved his two teenage sons to the city for a better life, and a neighbor noted a curious thing. The boys were never to be seen outside the house. After questioning their father, the neighbor got the reply, "I don't want to let them out until they've gotten used to the ways of the city."

In the world as well as in our country, are small societies, usually with a religious bent, in which young people are kept from contact with non-believers. They will thus grow up untainted by sinful peers and full of good ideas about behavior.

Sequestration leads in many cases to young adults who are polite, well-mannered, and clean living. In others, more like the probable fate of our farmer's sons, contact with the real world may be an eye-opener with disastrous consequences.

Current efforts to control aberrant behavior, including abuse of chemicals, by our youngsters lean heavily on a form of sequestration - more law enforcement to build a fence around the vulnerable ones. Actually, this is historical as well as current. The War On Drugs is one of those perpetual things that will get a label in the history books - Hundred Year War, etc.

One would think the knowledge is widespread that the main reason for kids' aberrant behavior is the pleasure they derive from it. Take sex for example. Most of us are aware that sexual activity has a certain attractiveness; it's tons of fun. Similarly, the vast majority of drug experiments don't lead to death or disability, they lead to some kind of immediate reward.

Herewith lies the challenge. How do we "dis-incentivize" pleasurable behavior in favor of abstinence, of saying "no", or "think of the rewards down the road", ad infinitum ad absurdum. It isn't as simple as hiring more police or building high fences around our children.

So where are the incentives to avoid possibly destructive but definitely enjoyable behavior? Among the possibilities:

1. Membership in a group which is "clean" and proud of it.

2. Belonging to a church group. Don't snicker, you backsliders out there, religion has a pretty good track record.

3. Increase participation in energy-intense sports activities. There are fewer substance abusers who also play ball.

4. Emphasize the positives of "being in control of your person." Don't lecture to kids; they learn early how to tune you out, and a scare lasts only as long as the child is in your presence. Are you planning on following her around 24/7?

5. Lead by example. If children are surrounded by clean living adults, they have a better chance of doing the same.

6. Use you imagination and invent non-food, non-monetary rewards for demonstrated good behavior.

In response to the hard-line, and sort of simplistic attitude of making drugs scarce by killing all the pushers, I say, "Don't underestimate your kids' and the lengths they'll travel for a buzz." Sniffing glue, huffing spray cleaners, sneaking mom's pills, and taking OTC cold remedies won't be stopped by lifetime imprisonment of all the dealers in the world.

Our farmer's sons will head for the playground as soon as they get out of the house, and there they will find an assortment of temptations they couldn't have dreamed of 'til now. Wanna bet they don't try them?