Raising anti-drug awareness in comics no longer having impact?

[Zauriel]

While I was re-reading some old comic books by Neal Adams and George Perez as a memorial to those great men, I found those two certain comic books.
A Green/Lantern/Green Arrow story about Speedy's addiction and a New Teen Titans comic about drug abuse awareness. These were printed decades ago. Both stories were very good, compelling and leave emotional impact on the reader. I believe they were intended as a message to teach the young people about the dangers of drug abuse. But did it work really well?

Today, people, especially kids are still using drugs. Some of them died from overdose. Drug Overdose deaths increased 15 percent in 2021, up from an estimated 93,655 fatalities the year prior. The prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the United States and Europe.

Some states have either decriminalized or legalized medical or recreational marijuana. Several people including former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, have used marijuana to treat the pain from their injuries. The effectiveness of cannabis' use as pain treatment led Gary Johnson to campaign for decriminalization of cannabis. In July 2014, he was named president and CEO of Cannabis Sativa Inc., a Nevada-based company that aims primarily to sell medical cannabis products in states where medicinal and/or recreational cannabis is legal.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowbirds_Don't_Fly

Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (May–July 1971) was published by rival comic publishing house Marvel Comics, which showed major supporting character Harry Osborn struggling with drug addiction. It was the first comic from a major publisher to be published without the Comics Code Authority's seal of approval since 1954, when the Comics Code Authority was founded.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Johnson

[Riv86672]

Not sure where you’re going w. this or what you’re asking, really.

The comics you cited, are you really dinging them for not putting an end to the drug problem?
That’s incredibly unrealistic in terms of expectations.

Comics are a medium that reached/reaches a ton of young ppl so yeah, some creators are going to take the chance to try and say something, or the comics company will be approached by agencies to try and get a message out. Neither of these things are going to make every kid in America not do drugs.

As for the current legalization topic(s) well, one of the reasons the Mafia became as powerful as it did in the early 20th century was due to prohibition giving them a sure fire money making opportunity.

[Scott Taylor]

There's always been an antithetical side to the anti-drug campaigns, that treats drugs in general as a way to open your mind, reveal creativity, have fun, be cool, etc. rather than something to be shunned at all costs. Comics like you mentioned are very old and associated with what is deemed as an archaic way to handle drug education - that of just declaring it a bad, black and white thing. The same mentality as is in those comics would have been behind things like prohibition or the "Just Say No to Drugs" campaign of the 1980s. And that mentality does create a backlash.

Meanwhile America has a bigger drug problem than ever and more are dying from drug overdoses than ever before. But its a different kind of crisis than it was back when those comics were made. This time is all ages and quite a bit of it (most?) is from prescription drugs rather than the illegal stuff. And Fentanyl, which is maybe the deadliest drug substance we've seen yet.

[Zauriel]

Not sure where you’re going w. this or what you’re asking, really.

.

Sorry. I believe I am asking the wrong question. Perhaps the more appropriate question I should ask is "should comics attempt to raise drug abuse awareness today as they did decades before?"

[Timothy Hunter]

Maybe pamphlets about drug awareness at schools could be effective, making a comic starring Spiderman telling you about the dangers of vaping would be seen today as condescending and hoaky.

[MajorHoy]

Sorry. I believe I am asking the wrong question. Perhaps the more appropriate question I should ask is "should comics attempt to raise drug abuse awareness today as they did decades before?"

Doubt it would be of much use unless any studies show the average age of today's typical comic book reader is under the age of 25 years old.

[CSTowle]

Maybe pamphlets about drug awareness at schools could be effective, making a comic starring Spiderman telling you about the dangers of vaping would be seen today as condescending and hoaky.

It was.

On drug awareness messages in comics, the thing to remember there is that comics are a dying niche industry whose patrons are largely over-40 white males (at least the traditional American style comics you're talking about, especially as monthly floppies). Not children. They could spend the money to advertise, and I'm sure it's much cheaper than in the days of Speedy's heroin addiction, but they wouldn't reach their core audience.

Having Disney use one of their hero movies to talk about addiction and the struggle with it, and adding an advertisement to a website or phone number people could reach out for help with, that would probably do more than all of the drug ads and "very special issue of"s made since the Drug War started.

[Mister Mets]

Sorry. I believe I am asking the wrong question. Perhaps the more appropriate question I should ask is "should comics attempt to raise drug abuse awareness today as they did decades before?"

This is an interesting question.

The so-called mainstream comics probably don't want to tackle this. Some of the creative teams like drugs too much. A story could be seen as too square on one end, or too dangerous on the other, especially if it involves characters in major superhero films. A story about Cyclops developing a cocaine addiction would complicate the MCU X-Men reboot. When comics got decompressed and stories got longer, it becomes more complicated to do these stories because fans experience it all one chapter at a time, with a month between entries. For a while, a story may seem pro drug and that's something they need to figure out.

But this may be worth exploring for the graphic novels made for middle school audiences. Those have fantastic sales and reach a younger audience, so it may make sense to tackle these types of issues.

[C_Miller]

It's a bit naive to think that a comic book really has the ability fix the drug problem, especially considering how systemic drug abuse is. The story of some guy coming off the street and offering you drugs just isn't the reality. Drug overdose is up across the board, but where they were all about equal 25 years ago, overdose from opioids (not including heroin) has almost four times the amount of overdose deaths from cocaine.

While I'm not going to say that all opioid deaths are unintentional, so many exist because people are given opioids after surgeries or illnesses and develop the addiction that way. Absolutely people should go to rehab and drug counseling, but the systems need to be broken down and resources should go there.

[Zelena]

I remember a panel from my childhood readings: Black Panther, removing his necklace, visibly in pain, saying he didn’t want anymore to rely on it…

Actually, past comics were rather contradictory: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Categoryrugs
You have Captain America’s super serum, Astérix’s magic potion too…

Still, US comics — and comics in general  — were, without any doubt, much more moral (or moralist) back then… Young people were reading comics more than nowadays — in France, they still read a lot of manga, though. I saw a change: more violence, more cynism…

I think the best media for that is TV Show… Sadly, we have lost a media that would be popular and massive, that could touch almost everyone.

[seismic-2]

It might have some effect, but only among that small fraction of young people who read comic books. It was a more important medium for teaching about drugs in the era when comics circulation, especially among teens, was larger than it is now.

[Zauriel]

It's a bit naive to think that a comic book really has the ability fix the drug problem, especially considering how systemic drug abuse is. The story of some guy coming off the street and offering you drugs just isn't the reality. Drug overdose is up across the board, but where they were all about equal 25 years ago, overdose from opioids (not including heroin) has almost four times the amount of overdose deaths from cocaine.

While I'm not going to say that all opioid deaths are unintentional, so many exist because people are given opioids after surgeries or illnesses and develop the addiction that way. Absolutely people should go to rehab and drug counseling, but the systems need to be broken down and resources should go there.

Veterans including Audie Murphy have used prescription drugs or illegal drugs to treat their PTSD. Audie Murphy once got addiced to the prescription drugs for a while.

Several prominent people including Cindy McCain, wife of John McCain and Patrick Joseph Kennedy (son of Ted Kennedy) were addicted to drugs for a while.

I remember a panel from my childhood readings: Black Panther, removing his necklace, visibly in pain, saying he didn’t want anymore to rely on it…

Actually, past comics were rather contradictory: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Categoryrugs
You have Captain America’s super serum, Astérix’s magic potion too…

Still, US comics — and comics in general  — were, without any doubt, much more moral (or moralist) back then… Young people were reading comics more than nowadays — in France, they still read a lot of manga, though. I saw a change: more violence, more cynism…

I think the best media for that is TV Show… Sadly, we have lost a media that would be popular and massive, that could touch almost everyone.

Some obscure superheros including Hourman and Black Terror used drugs to otbain super-powers. Hourman was once addicted to the drug that gave him superpowers.

[C_Miller]

Veterans including Audie Murphy have used prescription drugs or illegal drugs to treat their PTSD. Audie Murphy once got addiced to the prescription drugs for a while.

Several prominent people including Cindy McCain, wife of John McCain and Patrick Joseph Kennedy (son of Ted Kennedy) were addicted to drugs for a while.

All true. Not sure, how that refutes my points though.

[Mister Mets]

It's a bit naive to think that a comic book really has the ability fix the drug problem, especially considering how systemic drug abuse is. The story of some guy coming off the street and offering you drugs just isn't the reality. Drug overdose is up across the board, but where they were all about equal 25 years ago, overdose from opioids (not including heroin) has almost four times the amount of overdose deaths from cocaine.

While I'm not going to say that all opioid deaths are unintentional, so many exist because people are given opioids after surgeries or illnesses and develop the addiction that way. Absolutely people should go to rehab and drug counseling, but the systems need to be broken down and resources should go there.

A painkiller addiction is natural material for a superhero or action story.

I do think the reasons for not wanting to do it are different.

In the 70s, when Speedy and Harry Osborn had their drug problems, or Iron Man drank too much, comics were seen as material for children, so that was the context of those discussions.

Now the main reason not to do the story is that it could piss off fans of the characters, or hurt a brand.

A way to square the circle would be to introduce a new character, although that gets messy with efforts at greater diversity that could lead to weird inferences. For example, Marvel wouldn't want do this story with Escapade, their new trans mutant, because it could be as a statement about trans people.

[babyblob]

I always thought it was kind of odd to see anti drug messages in comics. I know people go nuts on the Gren Arrow Green Lantern comic being so great about it. But they also have Speedy getting over it in like a page or two. So doesnt really so many of the harmful effects of long term with draw and craving and such. But it was a good attempt.

I think The Osborn Arc in Spiderman did a better job of the long term effects with harry continuing to crave his pills, and falling back off the wagon.

But seeing as so many of the heroes and villains got their powers through drugs or chemicals Seemed kind of odd to say

"Well Steve Rodgers drug is great. But This drug is bad." But the Streets of Poison story arc did a decent job of pointing that out.