Drug and alcohol users can't be 'scared straight' because they already know more about the risks of their habits and people who don't use drugs, a new Swiss study claims. 

 

The research, produced by psychologists at the University of Zurich, calls into question decades of anti-drug campaigning in the United States - from the iconic 'this is your brain on drugs' public service announcements to graphic warning labels on packs of cigarettes. 

 

Instead of being warned off by risks like liver disease for heavy drinkers, lung cancer for tobacco smokers and memory loss for marijuana smokers, drug users know the perils - but ignore them.

 

'When you know a lot about the risks and everything about the substances, it doesn't really bring you to consume less. You even consume more,' Petra Dermota, professor at the University of Zurich, told LiveScience.

 

The study surveyed 12,000 young Swiss men and asked them about their habits of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use. 

 

Researchers also inquired about whether the men sought out information about the health effects of using the substances.

 

Men who smokes marijuana at least once a week were four times as likely to look up health information about marijuana as men who didn't smoke marijuana. 

 

Smokers and binge drinkers were twice as likely to have sought out side effect information than those who didn't use alcohol or tobacco. 

 

The information advantage is especially surprising considering drug and alcohol users tended to be less educated than those who didn't use such substances.

 

Dr Dermota told LiveScience that that study reveals that harmful consequences seem far off and the chances too remote to change the behavior of young people. 

 

The public health campaign against drugs has long touted the health consequences. 

 

Cigarette packs carry warning labels about cancer and birth defects. Beginning in 1987, a PSA showing a frying egg and the words 'this is your brain on drugs' aimed to show that illegal drug use can permanently impair cognitive ability.

 

Livescience

Daily Mail