American Euphoria: Saying Know to Drugs
By Richard Wilmot Ph.D.
PREFACE
Even though most psychoactive drugs in America are illegal, there are so many drug problems in this country that experts have termed drug abuse an epidemic. Yet our knowledge of drugs and drug use, misuse and abuse is inadequate. How much is too much? What does “getting high,” mean to the drug user? Are you an addict or a label?
The purpose of writing this book is to answer questions such as these. The ideas and analysis presented here views “addiction” from a new and different perspective. It is a holistic approach to drug/alcohol use and abuse that will help to question current drug treatment and drug policy authority.
Do the current perspectives on alcohol and drug abuse need to be questioned? After spending more than twenty years as a drug abuse counselor, researcher and educator, I believe they do. It is time for reform. It’s time for a change in thinking about euphoric drugs in general. It’s time for critical thinking about drug issues.
My passion for drug studies grew out of my own experience with a variety of drugs, with the drug subculture while in college and later working in the “culture of recovery”. After having worked for the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto, Canada, I received a scholarship to complete a specialized graduate degree (PH.D.) in Drug Studies at the University of California at San Diego and spent years in the recovery field from doing research, drug counseling clients on Skid row as well as those in the film industry, editing the Journal of Drug Issues, lecturing at the Drug Policy Foundation in Washington D.C., and teaching courses in Drug Studies.
This book focuses on the divisions between the “recovery culture” and the “drug culture”. Simply put, members of the drug culture have an acceptance of drug use while the recovery culture has an abstinence only approach. They are exclusive subcultures with little communication or acceptance of each other… although the culture of recovery is considerably more politically powerful. When one enters treatment, one must become an active, participating member in the recovery culture or risk becoming a treatment failure. One must drop all ties and interests in the drug culture and become committed only to the culture of recovery. Recovery, from the standpoint of the “culture of recovery” must be one of “higher power” conversion.
Acknowledging that “addicts” could benefit from some of their drug experiences or part of their drug culture experience is unthinkable from the perspective of orthodox recovery. From the position of rehabilitation, all drug use is bad and any use is unacceptable. The people, places, and things that are associated with the drug culture must be disavowed. They are “triggers” to further drug use. Everything about the drug subculture is anathema from tattoos to clothing styles.
Yet over my years in the fields of drug studies and treatment, I realized that much of what treatment had to say about “addiction” and the “addicts” themselves was based on stereotypes, stigmatization, ignorance, arrogance, and outright bigotry. Perhaps this is why eight out of every ten people entering recovery go back to using drugs.
Historically there are a number of well-adjusted persons who made outstanding contributions to society, and took euphoric drugs. I have witnessed the same: people doing things that the recovery culture claimed were not possible for someone who regularly used drugs. These people would have been labeled “addicts” had they been noticed or caught. They were not “victims” of drugs; they had their use under control even though some used daily e.g. Pope Leo XIII. This history of controlled drug use led me to wonder about the differences between those whose drug use was non-problematic and those who abused.
Traditional thinking is that the difference is physiological. Addicts are different biologically. They are allergic to alcohol or another drug; they have a “genetic predisposition” to abuse; they have “addictive personalities”. The scientific evidence for each of these perspectives is in dispute. Essentially there are those who understand “addiction” to be a controllable behavior and there are those who believe addiction is a disease. Yet the “treatment” for the “disease” of addiction focuses on “character defects” and surrender to a “Higher Power” i.e. healing by faith.
Rather, the most recent thinking is that “getting high: or “altering consciousness” is a universal biological drive arising out of the innate structure of the human brain. In other words, we are all “hard wired” to get “high”.
Viewing intoxication as a biological inevitability gives us a better understanding of how drug use differs from drug abuse. Such use is not necessarily immoral or pathological but natural. Much like sex, drug use for humans is a natural drive. Everyone has a need to alter their consciousness and they will do so even at their own peril… from sky diving to smoking “crack” cocaine. The challenge for society is to address this biologically based need to “alter consciousness” in safe, non-abusive ways that will provide people with the “peak experiences” they universally crave. Furthermore, there is a non-abusive code for “getting high” that can be learned so that people who drink or take other drugs do not end-up embarrassed, sick, dependent or dead.
To paraphrase this book: the ways in which we talk about drugs both to ourselves and to others perpetuates many of the problems with drugs. The content of what we have to say about drugs is a reflection of our puritan culture and our personal history.
The answer to our current drug abuse dilemma is to: “just say know” to drugs. This book intends to further that process.
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American Euphoria: Saying Know to Drugs is currently available on Amazon.com for purchase: http://www.amazon.com/American-Euphoria-Saying-Drugs-ebook/dp/B0053ZH1PY