2. Explaining Drug Use & Abuse

Already I find it interesting how quickly in-depth all the issues with drug-use and addiction goes. When I was in fifth grade I was subjected to the D.A.R.E. program, which was quick to imply that absolutely all drug use is basically bad, and will turn you into a wretched hobo, or raging madman. Not surprisingly, this program is failing tremendously just as the Reagan 'Just say NO' campaign did. To put it simply, I don't think its affective to educate people on drugs by lying to them. If you educate a person that drugs are evil, and later on they find out this more-or-less is an extreme fabrication, the only lesson is to not trust what you're educated on drugs. That was the lesson I learned at least, and I'd say it was true one.

That said, now that I've begun this course I finally feel as though I can trust what I'm being educated here. Unlike the D.A.R.E. program, which was evidently bent on educating people the moral taboo of drugs I've found that this course and our textbook is actually going to be going into what drugs actually are and how they affect people and culture. This I feel is evident with the fact that we aren't being instructed a moral direction because the truth is that the connection between man and drugs isn't so simple. For this reason I am very excited and interested to learn more about just how incredibly complicated this relationship actually is.

In chapter two, what really caught my interest was the great variety of personality types, subculture groups, and variety of 'drug-types' that any individual could be subject to. Furthermore, all this in itself could be just a part of what could amount as any individuals set of addictions. These addictions which are often perceived to be simple cut-and-dry 'chemical dependabilities' seem to more often then not be the results of incredibly unique  situations which resonate deep within personality. On page 53 in chapter 2 we are presented with a table of Risk Factors which all can potentially lead to addiction and drug use. However, the biological based factors (obvious factors most are familiar with, mood disorders and drug tolerances) make up only a portion of the factors many of which seem to totally disregard (such as personality and cultural factors).

Many of these factors I had already been familiar with, which resulted in my large disregard for governmental drug propaganda which always intended to divide things into 'good' and 'evil'. However I had never learned about the different definitions given to different "types" of these influences, such as sub-culture theory (the influence of ones subculture) and labeling theory (the influence of being subjected to another's labeling). By breaking down all these influences into smaller and clearer definitions it becomes more and more obvious how each of them become related, interconnected and allowing of completely individual cases of addiction to arise from any one person. It certainly goes to show the importance of a psychological-approach (per each person) toward each instance of addiction, because every construct is going to be slightly different, rather than a literal "war" approach, that seems to be the mentality of our government. The concept of fighting a war against a psychologically intricate set of behaviors and desires just seems so misled and corrupt in this day and age (hmm... maybe not so much). I have a feeling the more I learn from this course, the more I'm going to spot problems with the way our own culture handles such issues. However, one article I found helpful for shedding insight on the complexity of addiction treatment comes from a government funded drug abuse website: here.

I think my participation in discussion has been productive thus far. I think the quality and quantity of my participation is more then acceptable; However personally, I'm not yet sure if I should be more open with my own personal views and accounts, or whether such things are best kept to myself.

Several definitions I learned in this module:

• social learning theory - learned associations that occur from social observance.
• habituation - the turning of behavior into habit due to recursion.
• structural influence theory - focuses on the structure of 'significant others' and structured influences on an individual.
• amotivational syndrome - change of personality resulting in lack of interest & accomplishment.
• retrospective interpretation - the redefining of a person's image within a particular group.