Remember when we were in school? I do (sort of). I was in high school in the mid 70’s. There were drugs at my school. There were drugs in every school, even now. They are in public schools in low income areas. They are in public schools in high income areas. There are even drugs in faith based schools. No matter how we try to deny or avoid or demonize, substance use is everywhere.
Being musical and a little artistic, I wanted to attend a new school at the time where art and music were very supported. My parents had heard that drugs were rampant there so they refused and sent me to a high school focused on trades instead. I’m not sure how their logic evolved that the school I ended up in would somehow be drug free.
But man did I party. I even smoked pot with my english teacher there once. I became a high risk for problems with substances to add to my already shitty home life at the time. Fortunately I went in another direction when I reached my crossroads. I never did get caught by family or institution though. My decision was mine. And that’s a whole ‘nuther story.
It seemed that everyone was using something. Many of us (apparently a vast majority I later learned) experimented and even used recreationally for most of our youth. Sometimes there were issues but most of the time we just partied with no real problems. We had each others back. And many of us grew up and changed our use or continued without any negative consequences. Some of us still use something. Apparently well over half of us use something regularly without consequence. Substance use in our society is actually quite typical, you could say normal. Only one in ten to one in five, depending on which study you access, develop substance use disorder or addiction. That still leaves the majority of us in okay shape.
That view is fiercely unpopular within our society. For the last 100 years, since the early days of the war on drugs, we have been ineffectively trying to strive for a drug free society. This when substance use has been active for better or worse for millennia. Canada adopted the USA declaration of a “war on drugs” in the 1970’s and a “just say no” campaign in the 1980’s that only flooded jail cells in the US and Canada. Substance use increased. Crime increased. So substance users were now seen as criminals throughout society. Not only by social institutions but by families as well. This contributed to increased harm seen as caused by substances but in truth, caused by what is now dreadfully deadly drug policy that we refuse to let go of. This despite the fact that “addiction” has been viewed in part, as a health issue since the 1800’s. Of course through religious lenses, it has always been viewed as a separation from God, a sin, and a moral shortcoming. I suppose that is supposed to warrant criminality.
Many of my peers’ lives were ruined because of nonsensical laws that were mostly based on controlling certain cultural groups. It was never about the drugs. In fact, laws and policies were put in place without a shred of evidence of their impact on health. Most laws were based on congressional and parliamentary discussion about certain minority groups in Canada and the USA.
And later in life, as a counsellor in a very uneducated system, I too contributed to the decline of the social status of some youth who were, like many of us using substances. Their harm started after they were caught. Part of their consequence was being banished from mainstream school and assigned to a dysfunctional though well intentioned “special” class or school. That was regardless of whether they were mandated by law or not.
My role was to provide education on addiction. In other words, the system I worked in, and I, specifically would assign the labels of sick, criminal addict to youth who for the most part were recreational and experimental users of substances. Some were at risk of developing the disorder, sure, but they were being punished rather than cared for. It was believed that we could address a health issue by punishing behaviour. Doesn’t make much sense does it. Especially since science has proven that punishment at best hides behaviour and actually promotes more of the unwanted behaviour.
You don’t punish a person with cancer or diabetes or a broken leg. And then you don’t throw them in jail or segregate them from resources as punishment. People with “acceptable” diseases and ailments are usually treated with empathy and compassion for the most part. Not so with someone who uses substances and/or develops issues from that use.
And then, if someone eats too much sugar are they automatically a diabetic? If someone is eating too much pizza, are they automatically considered to have an eating disorder. Are people that take high risks such as skiing, parasailing or skydiving among other activities, are they “adrenaline junkies”. Do any of us warrant and want any of the labels we have created to categorize people, usually as good or bad? This is stereotyping and stigmatizing. Just what was I teaching?
I was essentially teaching them that they were sick, even if they really weren’t. I was teaching them that they were criminals even though they really weren’t. I was teaching them, unintentionally, that any substance use means addiction and if they were addicted they were bad sick people. That’s what we thought and that’s what many traditional programs still teach today. Imagine having it drilled into your head that not only were you committing a crime punishable by jail time, but your substance use would (not could) lead you into medical and psychiatric treatment. Imagine your family and you believing that you didn’t belong in your family or in society if you used substances. This is what we’ve been teaching youth over the last few decades. Now imagine all the other folks who did not get caught. They are usually living out their lives in their imperfect but mostly liberated way.
This has been said before, but just imagine, like him or not, if Obama had been caught smoking that joint he admitted to (and the ones he probably did not admit to), he would have been another black youth with a criminal record and would not even be able to dream about politics. But he didn’t get caught. So he didn’t get labelled.
Ordinarily my peers would have, like many of us who did not get caught by the institutions of society, moved forward in their lives. They would evolve to use resources at hand and usually find some sort of imperfect but healthy (ish) lifestyle with all its amenities, challenges and expectations. But not the ones I worked with. Their education was second rate, underfunded and taught in a mostly hopeless environment. And they were not wanted in mainstream and were made very aware of this fact. Many had issues at home or other risk factors that would predispose them to increased risky behaviours. But in our wisdom, with what we thought we knew then, we segregated those youth. We – I, was part of a system that kickstarted a downward spiral for these youth. Lives were almost irreparably damaged leaving many hopeless and without a sense of purpose or importance. Leaving them with the image that there was something wrong with them.
A few years later as I was working with people who were struggling with homelessness along with mental health and substance use issues, many of these youth presented themselves in destitute situations. Many had lost contact with their families having been labelled criminal. And many did resort to crime in order to obtain the substances they needed to get through a day. Many were in and out of jail. Many were in and out of multiple residential treatment programs. My eyes began to open as I realized who I was working with. These were the kids that were banished from mainstream classes for smoking pot or drinking. Resources were withheld from these youth and they were disenfranchised from their families.
We could have helped them. We could have done so much better if only we had known. If only our institutions were not based on stigma.
What we did that at the time, we thought was in their best interest. Just like families do the best they can with what they know. The problem is what we think we know. I can say with confidence that some of us who have been following the evidence properly, watching it develop and put pieces of this puzzle together, that we definitely know much more than we knew even in the 80’s and 90’s. And the information is still developing and pouring in.
The problem is that society can’t keep up with the progress of information. And there is the propensity for human nature to resist change and clutch the familiar. So we keep on doing the same things that were founded up to 80 years ago expecting different results. Social Insanity?
I became a better support, counsellor and advocate when I stopped smacking my head against the traditional and colonial ways and opened up to new thoughts, new paradigms in substance use and related disorders. I became curious. I stopped listening to the go to therapeutic flavours of the day and a system that only exists to further itself, and learned so much more.
The answers are developing. There is some value in some of the old views. There is a concept in 12 step thinking that I agree with. We need a willingness to admit and accept that we are powerless over our attempt to control substance use in our society. And the answers are right in front of us if we humble ourselves and break down the absolutes. There may be answers that in the past may not have been acceptable, but now are the most common sense and obvious answers to help those who suffer from substance use disorder. And we must stop condemning and demonizing our natural normal pleasure seeking activities. We all seek pleasure in different ways. We are not criminals or sick for doing so.
We have set in place safe ways to seek out many different pleasures, helmets, knee pads, parachutes, work boots, ear plugs (for those awesome concerts), condoms, medications, clean needles and paraphernalia, safe consumption sites and now opening the door to safe supply.
If its true that substance use has and will always be a part of human experience then we need to change what we are teaching youth and ourselves. As we teach about the health impact substance use can have, we should also be teaching how to protect, reduce any and all harm for substance use. We should teach about mental health and healthy coping strategies in school and not wait for someone to be institutionalized. Our communities need to work together to provide diverse pleasurable activities through clubs and facilities. We should be teaching not just the three R’s but art, music, dance, drama, trades, engineering, writing, and so on. All of these and more are known to help us develop; To help the brain develop. We should be teaching this with youth and families together. And most importantly, we should be learning the new information as it surfaces; And all of this from the lens of compassion not punishment, acceptance not judgment, engagement not avoidance.
Youth see through our adult bullshit and many do not trust us because of this. Time to switch from that…. to wisdom.
Resources:
Fisher, Carl Erik “The Urge: Our History of Addiction” Allen Lane – Penguin Random House 2022
Franzwa, Gregg: “Degrees of Culpability Aristotle and the Language of Addiction” Humanitas Volume XI, No. 1, 1998
https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2020-10/CCSA-Canadian-Drug-Summary-Alcohol-2019-en.pdf
Photo by Afta Putta Gunawan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhouette-group-of-people-standing-on-grass-field-1250346/
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/marijuana-legalization-in-canada
https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/8735/Discipline-vs-punishment-What-works-best-for?autologincheck=redirected