Shiftaced

Watched Stateline on Friday night and learnt that twelve and fourteen year olds with a family history of mental illness shouldn't smoke dope. It was quite a specific message but one too subtle for the panel assembled.

Perhaps the broad focus of the program dictated that there was little time to compare the effect of beginning the consumption of alcohol at 14 when you have a family history of mental illness. Or alcoholism.
Perhaps there was no time to consider the effect of a 12 year old smoking cigarettes when he or she has the cancer gene.
And maybe there was no time to compare the effects of an early introduction to valium or ADD drugs on the growing mind.

But a quick wrap-up could have accomplished something in the way of avoiding the impression that this was a grossly one-sided beat up of the kind that the media usually deliver on this subject. Not really to the standard of ABC journalism anyway.