The Need for Real Drug Education
It all started innocently. I was a young believer in the campaigns “This is your brain when you are on drugs” and ”Just say no to drugs”. I signed numerous promises in elementary and middle school promising never to smoke, drink or use drugs. I was on the road to a successful and sober life and if any of my so-called friends offered me a beer, I would say NO and refuse to go out with them again.
And then I turned 14. Being with my friends on a golf course, I accepted the first beer of my life. Any idea of campaign or promise against drugs and alcohol very quickly went out of my mind and was replaced by dancing with my friends and flirting with girls at a party almost 20 years ago. That night, I had more courage than I had normally and I felt way easier than I had ever felt before. I felt accepted, I felt with confident, I felt the way I thought I should feel all the time.
That night I decided that the conferences and all the so-called drug education I had received had no value, it was more important to have fun and enjoy myself with my friends. I decided that alcohol was being unfairly defamed by the media and all the people who throughout my time in school had told me that alcohol and drugs were not good for me were just wrong.
Throughout high school and a few years of college, I kept having fun with alcohol. Occasional, innocent fun, so I thought I could progressively rely on it to run.
Memory losses after binging began to be more frequent. I lost my car keys, and my debit cards. It became more and more common to wake up in strangers’ homes without remembering how I got there; I thought I had been covered and kidnapped every time I woke up! My alcohol consumption had made my life a nightmare filled with one bad decision after the other. These were my twenties. I had come to trust something that was actually killing me. Just very slowly. I still could not see the way that it was destroying a life I had not even begun. All my bad decisions in life were excusable, I aimed my finger at everything and everyone but myself (and alcohol, of course).
Classes never taught me how blind I would be while on my way to dependence on alcohol. All they taught me was “just say no” and keep it that way. I had not been taught any reality about what I was experiencing, and honestly, I would have liked to know. Maybe I would have never had that first drink if I really knew how bad things would get.
I think we need to better educate children about the realities of alcohol and drug abuse. “Just say no” campaigns and slideshows of traffic accidents caused by drunken driving do nothing to deter our young people from experimenting with mind-altering chemicals. We really should provide real information and data and have it delivered from a credible source. We do not need more people conveying the message that “drugs are bad” and “you really should not try them”.
What better way to learn about drugs and alcohol than to listen to the stories of recovering alcoholics and drug addicts?
If I had listened to the message and the story of an alcoholic who went through the pain, misery, and anguish that I ended up going through, I would have never had to experience it. If I could have gone ahead 20 years and seen the chaos I would end up making in the name of the next drink, I surely would not have made it.
What our society does not have
Our society lacks real education about alcohol and drug abuse. Nowadays, drugs and alcohol are completely promoted by the media, television, movies and musical lyrics.
“Hey, if DMX has been singing after fifty rehabs and he’s fine, if Eminem overdosed on Methadone but is still a great artist and Lil Scrappy is smoking weed, I should too!”
This is the message that youngsters receive today, this is what children are listening to, which leads them to believe that getting drugs and alcohol is great and this makes life a fun party. These messages are totally destructive and damaging—look at our addiction rate these days!
What is really needed are more programs that offer a true message of the consequences of taking drugs and alcohol and educating children about what these substances really are and the effect they can have on their lives.
What Narconon Colorado provides
Narconon Colorado also provides an extensive library of drugs symptoms and effects.
Education is key when it comes to hampering the growing epidemic of alcohol and drug abuse. At this time, addiction is at an all-time high with new, stronger, and deadlier substances that are constantly being created, sold and marketed to anyone who wants to pick up a buzz. Now, more than ever, our youth need cutting-edge educational information to be delivered to prevent them from being a sad and future statistic.
As a non-profit drug rehabilitation, we consider it part of our mission to do whatever we can to do our part to turn the tide on the planetwide drug problem. For this reason, Narconon Colorado also works with local community organizations to provide drug education and prevention.
Please contact us if you or someone you love needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or you are a local community organization or school and would like to work with us.
