# Nancy Reagan and the "Just Say No to Drugs" Campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 21, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481 "2004-06-21T17:49:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/41 "2004-06-23T11:20:25Z")
[According to CNN](http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/reagan/stories/bio.part.four/), whether it was Just Say No or something else, drug use among high school students was declining when Reagan left office. Incidentally, Nancy did not conceive the idea for an organized campaign. It came as a result of a question from a student at a school she was visiting, and Nancy’s reply was for her just to say no. The student started a Just Say No club, and it eventually came to Nancy’s attention that there were thousands of students in various chapters. But Reagan himself didn’t just say no. In 1986, he introduced manditory drug sentences. It had been 1951 since the federal government had done that (the Boggs Act). The next year, he brought us federal sentencing guidelines based on the arbitrary classification of weight. And in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, he established the death penalty for drug king-pins. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/42 "2004-06-23T13:06:24Z")
> [@II Gyan II](#): > > There are many things wrong with the “Just Say No to Drugs” (hereby JSNTD) campaign. First,…blah blah blah. I’m sure your approach of a state funded comprehensive education outlining all the facets of the implications of various drug use for all the children in the United States would be far more effective in eliminating the needless destruction of lives. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/43 "2004-06-23T13:10:14Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Beat me to the punch line, **Zag.** > > “Just say no” might have peer-pressure \*_gravis_ if it was endorsed by someone closer to the kids’ age group, like Chelsea Clinton during the '90s, or some highly-admired teenie-bop celebrity, but coming from Nancy Reagan – who was already looking like the First Grandmother back in the '80s – it is to laugh. Yes, but Nancy wasn’t the only one saying it. All kinds of celebs signed on to “Just Say No”; I think they had Soleil Moon Fry to appeal to the younger set. Because when Punky Brewster says don’t do drugs, well, how can you refuse that? ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/44 "2004-06-23T20:47:30Z")
> [@grienspace](#): > > I’m sure your approach of a state funded comprehensive education outlining all the facets of the implications of various drug use for all the children in the United States would be far more effective in eliminating the needless destruction of lives. Just where did I propose this state-funded comprehensive education approach?? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/45 "2004-06-23T20:54:11Z")
I remember Gene Simmons anti-drug commercial. It had much more credibility. from what I’d read, she may have been on Valium(Nancy) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/46 "2004-06-23T23:05:25Z")
**Timothy Leary** was interviewed by _Rolling Stone_ in the 1980s. The interviewer asked what he thought about the “Just Say No” campaign. Leary answered: “It should be ‘Just Say No Thank You’! It’s terrible how they don’t teach good manners any more!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/47 "2004-08-05T04:23:14Z")
Drug dealers have no manners to speak of. The only true proper response is to throw them out the window. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/48 "2004-08-05T21:45:09Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Whan you think about it, “Just say no” was the perfect Republican social-works program: > [ul] > [li]It didn’t require spending any resources.[/li][li]It didn’t require taking any action.[/li][li]It was critic-proof.[/li][li]It was nuiance-proof.[/li][li]It reduced a complex problem to oversimplistic terms.[/li][li]It encouraged mindless, unquestioning acceptance.[/li][li]If someone failed the program, then you could just blame the victim.[/li][li]It offered plenty of opportunities for feel-good photo ops.[/li][/ul] > > Of course, it also didn’t do a damn lick o’ good, but I don’t believe Ron and Nancy gave two toots about that. Unlike Betty Ford and her outreach that gave people an insight into addiction. While some may mock her and her clinic, I think her approach to the problem was a great deal more productive with longer lasting effects. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481/49 "2004-08-05T22:28:05Z")
I never did any drugs and it’s highly unlikely I would anyway. In recent years, come to feel that DARE _still_ did me a disservice by giving me a lot of half-truths and bullshit about the subject. But then, I prefer to discuss things intelligently when I can instead of relying on alarmism and misinformation… clearly the people drawing up the policies didn’t feel the same way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-reagan-and-the-just-say-no-to-drugs-campaign/251481.md?page=2)