Involving Students in Collegiate AOD Programming

Helping or advising specific campus groups or individuals as they develop community education programs or requests for funding for AOD prevention activities can be daunting. For example, most collegiate “alcohol education” activities have traditionally included a “risk-based” approach, one that essentially attempts to educate individuals about the “bad things that can happen” when using. Another “traditional approach” is the didactic “alcohol/other drug specific” theme, that is, the focus is on delivering information about the substance rather than engaging the audience in a discussion about the individual or group that may be considering its use. What if the emphasis when advising event planners was to: (1) avoid either of these foci, or (2) suggest skill-based and/or strength-based approaches to programming…if not both?

As regards avoiding the “AOD risk-based” program, I wonder how students would respond to an event designed to: (1) engage attendees in exploring the “benefits/pay-offs” of moderation rather than the risk associated with abuse—to move towards the light rather than away from the darkness—and/or (2) look at AOD-related topics, but with the emphasis on the student as a “student” rather than a consumer. For example, looking at how alcohol is marketed and considering the ethical implications of an ad campaign that is only concerned with increasing sales and ignores the social implications of those increased sales, especially if targeting “underage” consumers; or one that looks at interesting historical facts related to AOD and presents interesting trivia…like how the term “proof” came to be related to alcohol or that the Pentagon is built on the geographic site of one of the largest 18th century hemp plantations in the Western Hemisphere or that “canvas” comes from the Dutch word for  Cannabis, etc. (see Loosening theGrip by Kinney for this type of historical data or explore www.Mentalfloss.com. One could do something on FAE—Fetal Alcohol Effect—for a program attended by bio, nursing, or pre-med majors or consider the role of psychoactive substances in religious ritual for Religion or Sociology majors. For Psych majors, design programs that look at the nexus of AOD use and social psych, exploring phenomena such as “Alcohol Myopia,” “state dependent learning,” etc. Notice how such programs are more likely to engage students as students than traditional programs that try and engage them strictly as “consumers”; yet insight is insight, whether it is gleaned by a “student” or “consumer” and is just as likely—and perhaps, more so—to affect the future thinking of “students” about consumption.

As regards avoiding the “AOD specific focus,” considering decision making skills (see http://www.samhsa.gov/consumersurvivor/sdm/Workbooks/SDM_Workbooks/Helper%20Workbook_508.pdf) or exploring the prevalence of “harm reduction” in contemporary culture—fire extinguishers, seatbelts and airbags, handrail on stairs, fire retardant infant clothing, etc. From this discussion, the presenter(s) can then invite the audience to identify existing HR strategies in their specific collegiate environment and from there, can be invited to hypothesize how HR can be more directly inserted into their every days lives, including socializing. If a budget exists for this event, perhaps the presenting group could purchase “give-aways” to be awarded to those in the audience that proffer suggestions, with the group deciding which individual idea is best—2^nd place…3^rd place?—and then award a “grand prize,” a college hoodie or something donated by the bookstore or “whatever” with T-shirts or whatever for 2^nd and 3^rd places.

Contemporary collegians are both well informed and sophisticated. They are not only disinterested in the traditional “AOD Talk,” they find such to be off-putting if not condescending. Yet when approached as the “students” they are, they will respond differently because we condition them to respond differently.

Remember Mark Twain’s famous quote about perspective when approaching others:  When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.  

What do you think?

Dr. Robert

An Argument against the Legalization of Marijuana

As a controlled substance, marijuana has been a topic of discussion for decades. As with a number of controversial contemporary social issues, opinions on the topic seem to gravitate to either of the poles on the ideological continuum, resulting in something approaching the opposite of what statisticians refer to as a “normal distribution” or where the majority of responses cluster around the mean.  

Having reflected on this topic for the better part of 40 years—having once even participated in a discussion of the topic when arbitrarily assigned to the “pro side” of a public debate of this issue in the late 1970s—arguments for legalizing marijuana are both numerous and, frankly, compelling. True, there are persuasive points of view in support of retaining marijuana’s status as a controlled substance and therefore “illegal,” but it appears that with the passage of legislation in Washington and Colorado legalizing “recreational use” and others states recognizing the legitimacy of “medical use,” the tide of public opinion is shifting on this controversial subject.

Although in my career as a professional counselor specializing in the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders I have come to view the problems associated with alcohol and tobacco as being far more costly and injurious than those associated with marijuana, I do not support efforts to legalize “weed.” Again, the arguments in favor of legalization are compelling and we all know the financial case made by estimating tax revenues likely generated by the sale of marijuana, but my opposition is steeped in clinical concern rather than political, economic, or sociological ideology.

If legalized, then not only will marijuana become legal to purchase, its commercial sale becomes legitimate as well. With this legitimacy comes commercial competition by manufacturers—presumably big tobacco—to secure a share of the newly created public market. As we all experience on a regular basis, efforts to attract customers general include significant advertising.

Whether this advertising resembles the thrill and allure of television, cable, billboards, and periodical ads for beer, wine, spirits, and cigarettes or those related to sponsoring sporting events with race cars emblazoned with various brewer and distiller corporate logos—now there is an incongruous image if ever there was one—the ads for marijuana will likely employ many of the same gimmicks and strategies as have so successfully marketed nicotine, ethanol, and, increasingly of late, prescription medications, a.k.a, “drugs.”

Research suggests that jurisdictions that decriminalize marijuana possession and use—production and distribution remaining illicit acts—do NOT see an increase in use in the general population. Yet when legalized, use increases, but not because of the change in legal status of the drug as much as because of the advertising involved in its legal distribution and the inherent messages in those advertisements related to the benefits, implied or stated, of use.

The consumption of marijuana is almost certainly less of a problem in our culture than that related to either alcohol or tobacco use, let alone both. Irrespective of the relative risks associated with marijuana use, however, it remains a psychoactive substance. As such, when consumed to excess, it is not without its risks. Nevertheless, the issue surrounding legal status of marijuana, for me, is less one of individual rights than of personal and societal well being. As such, the decriminalization of possession and use make more sense than the legalizing of the substance, especially when considering the way that this drug will likely be presented to the public by those intent on making a profit through its legal distribution.

What do you think?

Dr. Robert