By now you may have heard this story about high school students being terrorized taught about the perils of drunk driving through the use of some extreme shock tactics:

OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) - On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.

A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax—a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.”

When I was in high school my classmates and I also had a visit from law enforcement, in our case a grizzled veteran of the Boston Police Department. The gentleman informed us in short order that we were all too young to be drinking, drinking and driving was for idiots, and stashing the swizzle sticks from your drink(s) in your pocket was an excellent way to track your alcohol consumption. The end.