| Q & A: Use and Abuse |
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Q: Do you have any information on teen drug use specific to San Francisco? A: According to the California Healthy Kids Survey, San Francisco’s high school students used fewer drugs than others in California. Ninth and eleventh graders from around the state were asked whether, in the 30 days prior to taking the survey, they had used tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. Here are the results:
A: Drug use among elementary school children (in many school districts now ending after the 5th grade) is rare. The few who do experiment are likely to use whatever is available at home from the medicine cabinet or beer and liquor supply. It is important to keep these substances in places where children cannot have access. Q: People say how easy it is to stop using drugs. Well, it's not. They are very addictive. What ways can you gradually stop smoking weed? A: An early warning sign of dependency/addiction emerges when a person decides to moderate his or her use, but nevertheless slips back into the old pattern of heavy or frequent use. Actually, it is easy for some people to stop when they want to, but not for others, no matter how hard they try. When this happens, there is a problem, as you obviously recognize. Some treatment professionals suggest that clients first try to moderate their use in order to discover for themselves whether they have developed a dependency. They set a goal and then try to achieve it. When this does not work, gradually stopping or stopping for a set period of time in the hope than things will be okay afterwards is not a realistic option. At this point abstinence is the best goal. It is time to seek help in a treatment or 12-step program. To learn more about treatment options, please visit our website. Q: What is the difference between use and abuse? A: In our view, use refers to consumption of alcohol or illegal drugs without negative behavioral or psychological consequences to self or others. We say “behavioral or psychological,” because use itself and even possession of alcohol by minors is against the law, and if discovered, the minor could be prosecuted. For adults this is true for illegal drugs only. However, if someone is arrested for being drunk and disorderly that comes under our definition of abuse because the behavior causes harm to self or others or at least annoyance to others. The same is true for illegal drugs. We label people as substance abusers when their behavior while high repeatedly causes harm to self and/or others. In other words, abusers keep on making the same mistakes. Any drinker, especially an inexperienced drinker, can get sick or misbehave at least once. To graduate from user to abuser they have to keep on doing the same things — never learning from their mistakes or misbehaviors. Of course, if we were to go on to the more formal clinical concepts of “dependency” or “addiction” further criteria would be added. Q: Why are drugs a serious problem for today's youth? A: One could write a book on this subject! To answer briefly is to oversimplify, but here goes. First, drug use is not a serious problem for the great majority of young people in Australia or the USA. Perhaps half of older teens have tried an illicit drug, usually cannabis (marijuana), although a substantial majority has used alcohol. Among those who have tried either only a minority can be classified as "abusers" who experience problems (and/or cause problems for others) as a result of their use. Abusive drinking and using seldom stands alone, however. These youth usually have personal problems that predate their substance abuse, especially in their relationships with other people. Professionals that work with such youth report that their use often is an attempt to self-medicate. This group needs assistance rather than punishment. Second, in most developed, Western societies use of all classes of psychoactive drugs - alcohol, illegal drugs, and doctor-prescribed medications - is now common. Alcohol is intensively advertised and promoted. In the USA, so are prescription drugs for personal problems that once were lived with or dealt with by other means - anxiety, depression, even shyness. Many of these pharmaceutical drugs are advertised in television spots which adviser viewers to, "Ask your doctor about…" In this sense the behavior of young people mirrors the behavior of adults. Modern society seems to be drug-besotted! Nevertheless, most youthful drinkers and occasional users of some of the illegal drugs do so moderately and mainly as a recreational activity. Q: What is the difference between people who can use drugs recreationally and those who become addicts? A: It is impossible to know who can use alcohol and other drugs recreationally and who cannot. Alcoholics and drug addicts include people of all social and educational levels, from neurosurgeons to unemployed school dropouts. There is a correlation between life circumstances and propensity for addiction, but it is only a correlation. Research on human resiliency reveals that, even in so-called “high-risk” groups, the majority of people do not become alcoholics or addicts. Moreover, there are no personality traits or other personal characteristics that predict with certainty who will become addicted. Genetic propensity is almost certainly involved, but even having an addicted parent or parents is far from a perfect predictor. The only way to determine that we or someone else is addicted is through actual behavior. Addicts are people who continue to drink or use other drugs despite repeated negative effect on themselves or others. In other words, we have to use an after-the-fact definition. Worse, the addicted person is a poor judge of his or her own addiction, because it is so easy deny the connection between negative fallout associated with use and externalize blame to others or life circumstances. |
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