Iceland knows how to stop teen substance abuse but the rest of the world isn’t listening

Been to jail for a few years,violence and driving drunk (11 times). You are going to learn or you're not,its that simple. Losing time is not the punishment....finally having a moment of clarity and thinking "wtf and I doing in here "was my personal punishment, people are gonna do what people want to do...harshness of punishment doesn't always work either,..... What you see in jail would stop most committing crime would help. We have company run fight clubs here in nz jails.

I don´t know, but that sounds a bit...1984ish:

"Laws were changed. (...) Links between parents and school were strengthened through parental organisations which BY LAW HAD TO be established in every school, along with school councils with parent representatives. Parents were encouraged to attend talks on the importance of spending a quantity of time with their children rather than occasional “quality time”, on talking to their kids about their lives, on knowing who their kids were friends with, and on keeping their children home in the evenings.*

A law was also passed prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10pm in winter and midnight in summer. It’s still in effect today."

* Good thing, maybe possible in Iceland, but not where you are forced to work 24/7, to be "flexible" for your job or jobs...

So the people are forced to their "own luck"? Or is it just less expensive for Icelands health care and similiar? Is it because if you have not much people, you need everybody to be fit, to work, to make money(taxes etc)? It is absolutely ok to go against alcohol, we can see the outcome of alcohol abuse everyday, everywhere in the western world.

But prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10pm in winter and midnight in summer...
At this age we used every minute we were allowed to camp somewhere outsides, even if it was too cold for camping. We didn´t drink or smoke, but we roamed around at night and made our experiences. We didn´t do something bad or evil(ok, maybe sometimes we stole the rolls the bakery delivered at 5 in the morning, but "we had to survive"... xD), but we felt free and like being on an adventure.

What would happen in Iceland nowadays? The police would catch you(good if there are surveillance cameras everywhere...) and bring you home, and i bet the parents have to pay a fine. For kids just being outsides at the age between 13 and 16 and at night. I don´t know, but that´s not the kind of "freedom" i would prefer for my children. And i don´t think that you can "force people to their luck". Lets see in ten or twenty years what these kids become to. Which problems they will have. Maybe they all become serial killers, who knows? For me this is nothing more than an experiment, and the kids and people of iceland are the guinea pigs.

I am not a friend of a state that regulates everything by laws. What´s next to be forbidden by law? Cursing? The way to look at others? They way somebody moves? The clothes somebody wears? Spitting on the floor and having more than one child???

There was a lot Iceland did right. At least it looked as they did a lot right, but then corruption struck again, their PM Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson. This showed again, that even in Iceland, politics and big money are too interwoven in the western world.

And that´s the problem for all evil, that´s the reason why people drink, abuse drugs. Because they are unhappy with their lifes. Because of no good future prospects. Because of being used as a low wage slave. Because of being robbed of lifetime, to make profits for others. Because of stress at the job(s). Because of being feared to become unemployed, even if it is a low wage slaves job. Because of being forced to be a robot, like all the other robots around you.

Because of the divide between the rich and the rest of the worlds people, that are exploited by that greedy bunch of rich people(not all rich people are like this!!!), just to make them more rich!

And i am sure you can´t hide the outcome of this exploiting system with laws, with forbidding everything. That reminds too much to "1984". People, even young people, need freedoms to make their experiences. This freedom should not be stolen just for the profits of the exploiting system. Maybe we should cage up the children at home, just leave them out for school and work. Till they are old enough to leave the house. And then, i am pretty sure, the problems really start. If kids are forbidden to make their own experiences before.

What if such a kid, that is forbidden eveyrthing, leaves Iceland for the first time, to a more free nation with less anti-freedom laws? It will let it all hang out, but for real, with no exceptions.

Parents have to teach their kids. About drugs, about life etc. And that should be normal. But if people don´t want to be good parents, i bet you can´t even force them with laws to be good parents. And laws can´t teach children or people, they only can force them to act like the rulers want it, need it!

To generate more profits for the rich minority of this world.

originally posted by: Tardacus
I guess our grand parents were right, there`s nothing that an honest days hard work can`t cure.At the end of the day you feel a sense of satisfaction because you accomplished something and you even made a little money,you might have even learned something too.

This. A million times this.

a reply to: cuckooold

After reading that it really just sounds like the kids needed parental (or mentor adult) supervision and guidance. Glad it took millions of dollars and years of studying to realize this.

I had a decent upbringing, was warned the danger or Alcohol and drugs and Cigarretes,
I still found ways to do them all. Main reason being - at a time when school is stressful and some times a real dark place,
the weekends and some nights on weekdays the 'bad' things made me feel 'good'.
This isn't just me, this probably goes for 50% of my fellow pupils.
I dare say some developed problems but that would be a severe minority.

I'd also add, it made me aware of how strong these things were, so by the time I was 21 I was a veteran and knew what not to dom where as those who stood by the rules and didn't partake at a younger age were like animals let loose.

Not a knock on the article or anyone just some food for thought sprinkled with anecdotal evidence.

a reply to: cuckooold
Well finally somebody took a common sense approach to it. Though truth to tell, most drug addicts teens or otherwise are a product of there environment just as much as there choices, and it to is common sense to nip that in the bud before it springs up.

So the effects and percentages of how it will work will differ from country to country even community to community even to such facts on who has time for such after school pursuits when you got bills to pay and time is money. Also in some cases you can lead the horse to water but you cant make him drink comes to mind. But hey seems to have worked for them. So there obviously is something there.

Well I gave you a star and flag as this is the first thread I seen which was not some nonsense about Obama or Trump or the whole Red vs Blue nonsense and other variety of junk prevalent on ATS these past months.

a reply to: Lolliek
It is a known fact that humans would prefer and even crave any experience even detrimental or painful ones to no stimulation and experience at all. They did tests on this long ago, even now a days, even big name universities. You would be surprised how many peoples life's spiraled out of control and lead to dependency problems, simply because they did not know to cope, or didn't like to cope with a bit of boredom. If going by those tests, then patience really is a virtue.

Here this guy on his channel does an experiment on it, 3 days locked in a room with nothing and no stimulation to see if the whole it only takes 3 days to change your brain chemistry if your locked in a room with no stimulus thing is true. Also the boredom test is in there as well, I have not watched the entire video and there is a part 2 I think.

But ya, and I quote from the vid "The hypothesis is when left alone with a very negative stimulus, people will go ahead and re-experience it just because its something to do" And that is not even taking in various other factors like peer pressure and habitat. Just a guy locked in a room with a shock button for a few minutes, it took the test subject with the prospect of either doing nothing for 30 minutes, or shocking himself voluntarily. About 1:58 seconds to hit the zap button, for the first time, even though he said he said he not want to experience it again previous to the test.

Proving once again that even pain is preferable to feel, to prospect of feeling nothing and being a little bored. But again there are many and much more variables out there in real life.

a reply to: hiddenNZ
Believe it or not that may be more favorable then if the whole thing went full indentured servitude which is just a facy way of saying slaves. And turning a complete for profit privately owned prisons. Which is just saying there working to make a few rich guys, much richer.

But then again on the other scope of it is something like this. "Can violent men redeem themselves through violent acts like the prison fights for freedom they have in Thailand" Its a slippery slope, but I think if both examples were to there extreme the for profit indentured slavery ones are likely not only be much worse but lead to a much harsh reality. And in reality its not a good vs evil scenario, its most often Bad vs Worse scenarios which play out.

Here they even have show on the prison fights in Thailand.

Iceland is such a pro-active country, we could learn a great deal about their successes. They face life head-on, no excuses, take control of your life. They listened to Harvey Milkman.

Imagine what a person like Milkman could have done, if the U.S. had listened to him before organizing that stupid, ineffective "War on Drugs".

Milkman realized that people were destined for drug abuse because of the way they were living their lives, and that it what he focused on...He empowered them. Brilliant.

So only an extra 20% of kids ended up doing sports more than 4 times a week and again 20% extra said they were spending more time with their parents on week days. Only the low income families were given a funding of $250 so their kids could get sports for free. So what changed all the rest of the kids habits?

maybe they laws they passed?

Laws were changed. It became illegal to buy tobacco under the age of 18 and alcohol under the age of 20, and tobacco and alcohol advertising was banned.

A law was also passed prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10pm in winter and midnight in summer. It’s still in effect today.

Home and School, the national umbrella body for parental organisations, introduced agreements for parents to sign. The content varies depending on the age group, and individual organisations can decide what they want to include. For kids aged 13 and up, parents can pledge to follow all the recommendations, and also, for example, not to allow their kids to have unsupervised parties, not to buy alcohol for minors, and to keep an eye on the wellbeing of other children.

In all the rest of the 17 countries that have tried something along these lines they have nowhere near the fall of abuse as iceland.

originally posted by: DerBeobachter
I don´t know, but that sounds a bit...1984ish:

"Laws were changed. (...) Links between parents and school were strengthened through parental organisations which BY LAW HAD TO be established in every school, along with school councils with parent representatives. Parents were encouraged to attend talks on the importance of spending a quantity of time with their children rather than occasional “quality time”, on talking to their kids about their lives, on knowing who their kids were friends with, and on keeping their children home in the evenings.*

A law was also passed prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10pm in winter and midnight in summer. It’s still in effect today."

* Good thing, maybe possible in Iceland, but not where you are forced to work 24/7, to be "flexible" for your job or jobs...

So the people are forced to their "own luck"? Or is it just less expensive for Icelands health care and similiar? Is it because if you have not much people, you need everybody to be fit, to work, to make money(taxes etc)? It is absolutely ok to go against alcohol, we can see the outcome of alcohol abuse everyday, everywhere in the western world.

But prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10pm in winter and midnight in summer...
At this age we used every minute we were allowed to camp somewhere outsides, even if it was too cold for camping. We didn´t drink or smoke, but we roamed around at night and made our experiences. We didn´t do something bad or evil(ok, maybe sometimes we stole the rolls the bakery delivered at 5 in the morning, but "we had to survive"... xD), but we felt free and like being on an adventure.

What would happen in Iceland nowadays? The police would catch you(good if there are surveillance cameras everywhere...) and bring you home, and i bet the parents have to pay a fine. For kids just being outsides at the age between 13 and 16 and at night. I don´t know, but that´s not the kind of "freedom" i would prefer for my children. And i don´t think that you can "force people to their luck". Lets see in ten or twenty years what these kids become to. Which problems they will have. Maybe they all become serial killers, who knows? For me this is nothing more than an experiment, and the kids and people of iceland are the guinea pigs.

I am not a friend of a state that regulates everything by laws. What´s next to be forbidden by law? Cursing? The way to look at others? They way somebody moves? The clothes somebody wears? Spitting on the floor and having more than one child???

There was a lot Iceland did right. At least it looked as they did a lot right, but then corruption struck again, their PM Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson. This showed again, that even in Iceland, politics and big money are too interwoven in the western world.

And that´s the problem for all evil, that´s the reason why people drink, abuse drugs. Because they are unhappy with their lifes. Because of no good future prospects. Because of being used as a low wage slave. Because of being robbed of lifetime, to make profits for others. Because of stress at the job(s). Because of being feared to become unemployed, even if it is a low wage slaves job. Because of being forced to be a robot, like all the other robots around you.

Because of the divide between the rich and the rest of the worlds people, that are exploited by that greedy bunch of rich people(not all rich people are like this!!!), just to make them more rich!

And i am sure you can´t hide the outcome of this exploiting system with laws, with forbidding everything. That reminds too much to "1984". People, even young people, need freedoms to make their experiences. This freedom should not be stolen just for the profits of the exploiting system. Maybe we should cage up the children at home, just leave them out for school and work. Till they are old enough to leave the house. And then, i am pretty sure, the problems really start. If kids are forbidden to make their own experiences before.

What if such a kid, that is forbidden eveyrthing, leaves Iceland for the first time, to a more free nation with less anti-freedom laws? It will let it all hang out, but for real, with no exceptions.

Parents have to teach their kids. About drugs, about life etc. And that should be normal. But if people don´t want to be good parents, i bet you can´t even force them with laws to be good parents. And laws can´t teach children or people, they only can force them to act like the rulers want it, need it!

To generate more profits for the rich minority of this world.

So because you think kids under 16 should be able to stay out after midnight we should scrap this science based Study who's basis is on human chemistry and it's physiological reward system and how the human brain interprets those rewards.

But let's maintain the system of law enforced abstence, militeralized local/state Law enforcement, black markets that fund terror/gangs/cartels, funding that has reached into the trillions ( that's with a T) of US dollars , court mandated "drug rehabilitation" all the while kids today can still get their hands on a bundle heroin easier than a 6pack of beer.

Well then thank you for your insight Mr. President Nixon , sir!