Fla. Teens Believe Drinking Bleach Will Prevent HIV - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida teens who believe drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV and a shot of Mountain Dew will stop pregnancy have prompted lawmakers to push for an overhaul of sex education in the state.Another myth is that Florida teens also believe that smoking marijuana will prevent a person from getting pregnant.

State lawmakers said the myths are spreading because of Florida’s abstinence-only sex education.

They are proposing a bill that would require a more comprehensive approach, the report said.

It would still require teaching abstinence but students would also learn about condoms and other methods of birth control and disease prevention.

The bill just passed its first vote in a committee.

This is the natural consequence of not providing teens with responsible factual information about sex and drugs.

Abstinence-only sex education is the “Just Say No” approach to teen sexual health, and we all know how well “Just Say No” got everyone to stop using drugs. It’s like a prohibition of biological facts. And for years we’ve told kids reefer madness lies like smoking pot will cause infertility (which, of course, is why there are no Rastafarian babies, right?  One of my good friends and member of Oregon NORML sent this photo of the results he and his wife achieved last week after years of extensive, er, research into marijuana/fertility argument.)  So when we tell them lies about marijuana and withhold the truth about birth control, is the belief that smoking pot prevents pregnancy that surprising?

Some parents will complain that sex education belongs at home.  That’s a laudable goal, but completely unrealistic.  Not every child benefits from a loving, stable home with forthright parents ready to dish about the birds and the bees.  So it is more realistic to teach teens about the biological facts about sex and the proper ways to remain healthy.  Yes, sexual abstinence at a young age is morally preferable for some and definitely the safest way to prevent pregnancy and STDs, but should a teen who does decide to act on those powerful adolescent hormones deserve an unwanted pregnancy or a death sentence due to ignorance?

Similarly, while we all agree that we’d prefer teens to not smoke marijuana, the fact is that some will, whether it is illegal or not.  So should we provide them with the facts, or should we allow their drug ignorance to spill over into sexual ignorance?

Both issues come down to frightened adults not wanting to “send the wrong message” to young people.  They fear if we tell kids about condoms and birth control and that marijuana use isn’t so awful and can be medicinal that we will encourage such behaviors by kids.  Instead, the message we send through abstinence and prohibition is that pregnancy and STDs and marijuana use and abuse are so dreadful that if you have sex and smoke pot, you deserve whatever bad consequence results from your ignorant actions.

Tags: abstinence, Florida, Just Say No, pregnancy, sex ed

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 8:23 am and is filed under 4:20 NewsHour, Parents and Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a trackback from your own site.