University of Virginia Library

Drug Use And Abuse

Ignorance and high-strung public emotion
have again joined forces to try and blot
out an evil equal in magnitude to the one
which they so ably quelled during the days
of Prohibition.

The victim this time is "drugs," a term
now so ambiguous that no one is really
sure what it encompasses. And the cry of
"drug abuse," which carries just as ambiguous
a connotation, has become the
scapegoat for a very complicated problem
which has many roots.

It is this public ignorance which results
in immediate shrieks of horror whenever
such culprits as LSD and marijuana are
mentioned, while even more dangerous but
socially acceptable drugs, such as amphetamines
and barbiturates, are passed by with
no questions asked.

This observation is very well clarified by
the background papers of the Drug Education
Project of the National Association
Of Student Personnel Administrators, an
agency which has sponsored many student
drug conferences throughout the United
States.

In these papers, experts on "drugs" from
different fields toss out their particular observations
on drug use and abuse, with
special attention given to the college campus.
Many different problems have been cited in
the papers, the most commons ones concerning
the area of semantics, the collection
of reliable data, and the need for a
collaboration of information from all fields
connected with drugs.

They all agree on one item: that much
more information needs to be distributed
before student abuse of drugs can be
eliminated. What is found in many cases
is a hysterical over-reacting to drugs resulting
in adverse propaganda and laws
which usually increase drug use rather than
lessen it. As a result there exist parents
of students who at the first mention of
drugs on campus demand that something
be done to stop such an outrage.

Parents and administrators should recognize,
however, that use of drugs is not
merely a matter of kicks for students,
but represents a rebellion against apathy
and the status quo. They, and the students
as well, should be made to realize that,
as one Drug Education Project writer states,
"None of the mind-altering drugs, whether
alcohol, marijuana, or LSD, is inherently
harmless. None of them is inherently vicious.
None of them has magical powers. All of
them have possibly beneficial or valuable
effects."

Certainly some sort of student drug education
program is needed at the University.
A simple one-page letter warning students
of the dangers and regulations of LSD and
marijuana is not adequate. An educational
program is needed telling exactly what agents
are encompassed by the term "drugs,"
what problems can result from their use,
and what benefits can be gained from them.
Columbia and several other universities have
accomplished this by publishing and distributing
their own pamphlets, listing the
various categories of drugs, describing their
medical and social use and possible side
effects, and pointing out various laws which
govern certain drugs.

Much more effective than this, we feel,
would be a student conference on drug
use and abuse on the Grounds. Such a
conference should be sponsored by some
service club or interested student group.
The conference should not merely be a series
of talks but should include speakers from
the major professional fields concerned with
drug use as well as student discussion
groups.

For a conference on the local level, many
of the University's own personnel could be
utilized, especially those from the Psychological
Counseling Center and Medical
School. Aid in establishing a conference
on a larger scale could be obtained from
Helen H. Nowlis, project director of the
Drug Education Project of the N.A.S.P.A.

It seems to us that, in the last analysis,
the decision to take drugs is an ethical
and moral one. Every means possible should
be taken to provide any information available
which may affect an individual's decision
in this matter. We hope the administration
and students of the University
will not dogmatically sweep such information
under a carpet of uninformed hostility.

C.A.H.