Fewer and fewer Hollywood films glorify drug use. When I was a kid I thought Jeff Spicoli was the coolest guy on the planet. Sean Penn instantly became my favorite actor!
Now with movies like Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and television shows like AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” drug use and abuse is not shown in a positive light.
Now comes a powerful short film “Our Scene” to help warn youngsters of the consequences of taking drugs.
The English-language film was presented at the University of Macau, followed by a lecture on drugs with the presence of specialists and families from neighboring Hong Kong.
The short film was shot in Macau with a group of young volunteers – none of them a drug abuser – and it will be distributed for free to local schools and associations.
The film is a bit tragic because it ends with the end of a young character but the message is powerful - to get across is that a whole life can be ruined by drugs.
The film also helped launch a fund raising campaign for its ‘Be Cool’ project. The ‘Be Cool’ centre is open daily with after-school activities, for Macau’s youth aged above 12 years. It focuses on drug prevention, through music, arts, cooking, sports, games, among others activities.
Since opening in March, over 200 youngsters have already joined the ‘Be Cool’ activities. It’s a way to broaden the horizons of the youth so that they might have healthy alternatives to the lack of leisure spaces.
According to official data, the number of people arrested for drug abuse fell by 27.1 percent year-on-year in the January-September period. In addition the number of registered youth drug users also dropped by 42 in the first half of this year.
Drug addiction is a global problem. It is nice to see the awareness out there to try and educate all citizens about the dangers of substance abuse!