Having experienced three years of Dickinson, I observed Dickinson’s drug problem first hand. The problem on campus is a reflection of the nation’s larger drug problem. Yet, America’s drug problem is not actually a problem rooted in drugs. In fact, drug use stems from a variety of historical, socioeconomic, cultural and psychological factors. When self-appointed authorities on the subject talk about the problem of drugs today, they are referring to a cultural and socioeconomic phenomenon disguised as a public health issue.
I have no doubt that some drugs have negative health effects and that some can be highly addictive, both physically and psychologically. However, I am arguing that the way we treat drug users in this country does not reflect that concern. Drug use is linked to a culture which has manifested itself from an underclass of people living on the margins of society.
Drug culture can effectively be broken down into three categories. “Drug Use” is the broad category used to describe people who use drugs, including those who use them recreationally, habitually, etc. “Drug Abuse” is a small group within Drug Use describing those who use substances either as a crutch to lean on or as an escape to overcome personal struggles. “Drug Addiction” is the small subsection within Drug Abuse, with addicts representing only a minuet fraction of overall drug users.
Dickinson contributes to the mainstream culture that lumps all users and aspects of the drug culture into one category, consequently painting them with the same negative brush. They associate drugs with failure and violence, which notably are the same characterizations they make of poor people. In reality, not all drug users are drug addicts. Moreover, drug addicts shouldn’t be characterized by failure in the first place. Addiction is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual seeks habitual use to the point of the addiction becoming a dominant force in his or her life. Addicts usually become so out of desperation to soothe traumatic stress. Their environments have substantially influenced their coping mechanisms. Addicts need support networks and treatment centers, not imprisonment or a society that constantly acknowledges their failure. In essence, the criminalization of drug addiction is now just as unethical as the criminalization of cancer victims.
Historically, the drug culture was popularized through middle-class representations of underclass life. Beginning with the transcendentalists of the 19th century, drug use has commonly been associated with counterculture movements. The modern War on Drugs actually has its spiritual roots in arrests of the Beatnik subculture. These ex-bourgeois bohemians scared the state with their knowledge of and passion for the style of lower class deviants while having the cultural influence of the middle-class, thus sparking off the humble beginnings of mass prosecutions for drug law violations.
University students, especially those in work-study programs represent a legitimate threat to the establishment. Having both working class experience and the knowledge of higher education makes students the ultimate allies for the underclass. Students hold a surprising sway over issue discourse and tend to be respected by various social groups. Thus, a devious counter-revolutionary figure would target these rebels for their cultural habits, not their identities. Drug use was incredibly common among counterculture movements and it still is today. Deans could not expel students for their political beliefs but they could for their drug use. This policy would inevitably mean that conduct violations would disproportionately harm students with radical or alternative beliefs, as well as poor people with whom they interact.
Generation X was the guinea pig for the educational demand-side campaign orchestrated by Reagan-era drug warriors. If you were a teen in the ‘80s, you were exposed to the relentless advertising of D.A.R.E. and the Just Say No campaign. Through the hammering of emotionally-charged rhetoric into the heads of adolescent youth, these programs espoused factual inaccuracies and wild caricatures of drug culture. These ads may seem silly to us today, having experienced the failure of Truth.org and the benign message of Above the Influence, yet a great deal of kids bought into the myths. Now, Generation X runs Dickinson. They represent a people who only know how to react, not how to solve. The War on Drugs, whether intentional or not, has become a primary force in the disempowerment of American democracy, both on our streets and in our colleges.
The attack on students’ drug use at Dickinson is an attack on a culture. And Dickinson can’t claim respect for diversity if it’s complicit in attacking a culture.
