Just say no,
” is the simple way to give lip service to the drug problem. But
it isn’t helping. Across the country the epidemic of drug abuse is
everywhere.
Just say no,” is the simple way to give lip service to the
drug problem. But it isn’t helping. Across the country the epidemic of drug abuse is everywhere. Living on a college campus, drug use is part of the culture and the environment.
For more than 40 years our government’s answer to this destructive habit has been to denounce drug abuse. But still the drug dealers and the drug takers have largely ignored the dire warnings of dying brain cells, sudden death, loss of family and friends, jail time and a rather quaint reference to frying eggs as a supposed deterrent to taking drugs.
My prediction, and I am no psychic, is that if there isn’t a change in our approach to drug education, another 40 years and another generation or two will be haunted by the same specter of drugs we face today.
It is summer in Boston, and I am in summer school, but no fun and games here: I am enrolled in classes where the subject of drug abuse and drug addiction is studied. The courses deal with just the facts. My classmates and I are treated to an in-depth analysis and descriptions about different forms of drugs, as well as researching the issue of both psychological and physical addiction.
The class strives to explain and answer that question: “ Why people continue using drugs in the face of so much evidence that it is bad for you body and soul.”
Our debate is, “ Should the United States put more emphasis on stopping the importation of illegal drugs?”
I don’t believe that a problem such as the one with drug abuse can be solved entirely from trying to keep the drugs outside of the United States from getting in.
It isn’t working. As long as there is a demand the drug dealers and drug producers will find a way to get the drugs to where the profit centers are-on the streets. I propose another avenue to solving the drug problem – let’s start on the streets. It is my own Trickle Down Theory applied to the drug problem targeting the issue of demand before supply.
In addition to the efforts of halting the import of illegal drugs and targeting international drug organizations (the supply), you target the kids before they become the potential users (the demand). Begin solving the problem by looking long-term – toward the next generation.
My idea is to develop a program where both parents and teachers play a vital team role in educating children about drugs and alcohol. All children will be required to take some sort of age appropriate drug education class while in school. The elementary school curriculum will include facts about alcohol and tobacco.
These easily digestible facts include: what alcohol is, the types of alcohol, the acute effects of alcohol are and what the long-term effects of alcohol are. Similarly, the facts on tobacco will include what it is, different ways tobacco can be taken, and the acute and long-term effects of tobacco use.
With an introduction and on-going education such as this, elementary students will be given an overview that will create a strong deterrent to the legal drugs more likely to be introduced to them by their parents or family members and in their own homes than by other students of their own age.
The continuing program to middle and high school students will include a curriculum covering both legal and illegal drugs, such as cocaine, heroin and marijuana.
I remember drug classes from elementary school through high school, and the one thing that sticks out in my mind is the party line of, “ Don’t do drugs, drugs are bad.” Telling a kid who has never heard of these drugs before isn’t going to be convinced by a statement as vague and simple as that. That may be a deterrent for a little while, but an on-going education aiming age-appropriately higher is the strongest tool.
I compare this type of education to the sex education of the past. Sex education was such a taboo subject that in many homes it wasn’t even discussed among family members. It was thought that if you educated children about sex, it would encourage them to do it. Now, both abstinence and safe sex are part of the sex education taught in both middle and high school. Instead of going by the phrase, “don’t have sex till you’re married,” the education went far enough to say, if you’re going to make the choice to have sex, use condoms and birth control to be safe.
If drug education taught both the physical and mental effects and the ways these different drugs are taken or used, the students would have a complete picture, their curiosity would not need to be satisfied because they would already have the answer.
There is no way to completely win the war on drugs.
You can, however, begin educating children at a young age, decrease the demand for the drugs, driving the prices of the drugs down, decreasing the profitability of the drug trade and therefore, putting the dealers out of business.
Now here is the hard part. This is not a quick fix. I estimate that, conservatively, my plan will take 20- 30 years before the effectiveness of my program can be measured for success or failure. There is one guarantee: 20 or 30 years will pass anyway. The time will pass either making a difference on solving the drug problem or it will pass with the war on drugs staying on course with drug abuse still a scourge on our lives.
One thing is clear: The drug education course at my college is having a profound effect on me. I can no longer look at, or look away from, the drug problem the same way I always have – with indifference. If the education has made a difference to me, then it can make a difference to everyone. We’ve got the time and we should start now.
Lacey Green is a third-year (of five) student at Northeastern University in Boston. Readers may contact her at La********@*ol.com
