DFA
Sniffing Again?
Written: December 2nd, 2000
Facts are outWhen the "Partnership for Drug Free America" recently released its thirteenth survey, it reported an increase in the use of "Ecstasy", although the use of Marijuana was down, a third straight decrease. The folks living in this country have been longing for a Drug Free America (DFA as I call it) for as long as I have lived here and that is at least thirty years. My concern is now increasingly for the children of the next generation of Americans, who have been changing the flavor of drugs to keep institutions and parents guessing on what is really the truth. The use of Hashish, Cocaine or any of its derivatives, Marijuana by any name, so called club drugs as in Ecstasy, and I can certainly name a few more - the cumulative use has not decreased. In my humble opinion, the use of "drugs" has not declined at all. Instead what is going on is a change in flavor and degree of high to which one is willing to go and experience. High Schools, colleges, neighborhoods, they are still very active - the amplitude in the use of drugs and associated crimes changes a bit with economy. Our children are exposed to it every day, and the sad thing is that most parents simply refuse to recognize it, but even when they do, they can not stop anything from happening on a statistical basis. So the new survey also has a lot of facts and not much more (7,290 students in 7-12 grades nationwide surveyed with a margin of error of 1.5%, which I do not believe). What they found was that 54 percent "thought" that they would behave foolishly compared to just 51 percent in 1997. To me, that is looking for straws to be rescued in a raging flood. They also found that 21% had used marijuana, as opposed to 24% in 1997. Now listen to this, 10% percent had tried ecstasy as compared to 7% in the last year. Looks to me like you need not be rocket scientist to see that cumulative affects are within the margin of error. Before we discuss the real problems, let me give you four Websites to browse if you like to surf, for the sake of your children.
www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov
www.cascolumbia.org
www.addictionscience.net
www.drugfreeamerica.org
What is the real problem
You may want to ask yourself why drugs prevail and don’t go away. America is trying to stop things at the source of production in this and other countries. We are trying to educate our children even with those weird advertisements. We are trying combinations and permutations on the consumption side and spending millions to research and produce more statistical reports than you can shake a stick at. When the economy is good and the work places are humming, the open sewers are closed, but the filth still flows in the gutters at the same rate and may be even higher. Well the real reasons are never discussed or understood because they are too hard to do anything about. There may be a large of number of reasons, but let me classify them into two, i.e. the children’s and their parent’s problems.
1. Teenagers have no real challenge of any consequence. They have plenty to eat. They have all the freedom to commit as much sex as they like. Their parents are no longer faithful to each other. Their real God, as they have come to realize, is the "Almighty Dollar." Their own parents are not even raising them anymore. And they have no real role models inside the house or out. Our Presidents have been dehumanized to the point of no respect. The talk shows in the name of more information (but really dollars) have no qualms about anything. The churches have the same stuff repeating the nth time, and "truths" not verifiable or even practiced. The secular society has no challenge for the kids. They are all born with platinum spoons and can do anything they want. Thus it is only natural to look for ecstasy, for a degree of "high" that is better than sex, a degree of infliction that is worse than alcoholism - any way to leave the surroundings for any excuse in search of the unknown pleasure. Until and unless each household can understand its fundamentals, the drug problem is going nowhere. That will not happen by current methods. A new paradigm is required.
2. The household environment is explosive and constantly above the critical point ready to start the chain reaction. The result is that a large majority of households are broken up and parents are no longer together. The pressure of modern life where no parent is in the household on a fulltime basis is a fact. The grandmothers no longer live in the attics, on the third floor, or nearby. Like the Day of Judgement all have their own sins to worry about. This does not just have an affect on the specific household in question, or the neighbor’s house, or a neighborhood, but slowly works to poison the atmosphere and begins to ultimately spoil the children of the nation. Drugs are only the first sign. What else is in store is unclear - no statistical information there. This situation will not change by current remedies. A new standard is required.
Where do we go from here
Finding a solution to these problems is not easy to say the least. The men and women of our time have found an unprecedented freedom outside of our work places. A work place is an "economic entity" where we work to prosper and deal with mostly issues concerning the new values system i.e. money, fame, career. The taxes and bills paid are the only responsibilities. And every one else, infant, teen, elders are to be taken care of by some paid member of the society only interested in the "economic entity". There is no social setting to spend time with anyone and all opportunities of developing love are lost. It is bit like the male elephants roaming the forest in a group and on their own. The key ingredient missing is the matriarch leading the herd - some one that cares, some one with that keen sense of where the water is in a drought lasting years at a time. What is needed is a group or an individual like the prophets and their disciples of old times logically arriving at a different paradigm. We have made immense scientific and technological gains and can not continue to lead a life derived mostly from the vision of a thousand years ago. The adjustments have to be predictable allowing people to plan for changes in the social structure in the same way as plans of economic growth of a nation. Thus we should have been able to predict a rise in the drug use and taken a preventive measure before it happened, as the cost of fixing anything is much higher and success not assured. We need longer-term plans that cannot be ad-hoc and dependent on the Almighty Dollar only. Who would do that? You and I, as the prophets have come and gone. This is the need of our hour.
Let us get to work.
© Copyright 2001 Sifwat Ali. All Rights Reserved
