Why They Turn to Drugs

THERE are no simple answers to why people turn to drugs. A few experts suggest that there are as many reasons for abusing drugs as there are people abusing them. Yet there is a fundamental reason for the problem.

It is that drugs are so available. For example, over 525 tons of barbiturates alone are produced annually in the United States. The American public consumes most of this tonnage on doctors’ prescriptions. Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal said that in 1971 enough mood-altering drugs were prescribed by doctors “to keep every man, woman and child in [the United States] either ‘up,’ ‘down’ or ‘out of it’ for a solid month.”

But are these “legitimate” prescription drugs dangerous? Are they a significant factor in the present drug-abuse crisis?

Drugs Used in Medicine

Barbiturates are sedatives, which doctors commonly prescribe to induce sleep. There are some twenty-six types of them. Practically all barbiturates are produced by legitimate pharmaceutical houses, but a large part of the supply is diverted into illegal channels. On the streets, the pills are called “downers” or “reds.” So great has the problem become with them that authorities have called 1972 “the year of the downer.”

Addiction sometimes results when these drugs are regularly relied upon to get to sleep. Many other persons abuse them simply for “kicks,” and become addicted. About one million persons in the United States are barbiturate addicts. An addict is one who needs drugs to avoid withdrawal pains. Sudden withdrawal can be so severe for a barbiturate addict that it can kill him. Also, over 3,000 persons in the United States each year die from overdoses of barbiturates!

There is also a deluge of stimulants, commonly known as “pep pills” or “uppers.” Amphetamines are the principal ones. Doctors often prescribe them to suppress the appetite, reduce fatigue or relieve depression. However, it is estimated that half the legally manufactured amphetamines find their way into illegal channels. These drugs, too, are dangerous and have either killed or ruined the lives of many persons.

Thus “legitimate” drugs, prescribed by doctors, are a major factor in the drug crisis. Yet the drugs grabbing most of the headlines are probably even a greater problem.

Drugs Without Accepted Medical Use

Heroin is the most dangerous of these. Ten to twelve tons of it a year are reportedly smuggled into the United States. Some 560,000 Americans are addicted to heroin, or about ten times the number in the early 1960’s. Heroin truly constitutes a deadly plague!

In New York city alone about four persons die every day from its effects! The average daily cost of a heroin habit is $40 or $50. To get this money, addicts steal more than $3,000,000 in property in New York city, on the average, every day! No wonder Newsweek reported: “New York City . . . is being killed by heroin.”

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is the most potent of the dozens of hallucinogenic drugs. In recent years many underground laboratories have begun producing it. Thus, despite the heavy demand, the price of an LSD tablet has fallen to about a tenth of its cost a few years ago. Although it is not physically addicting, as is heroin or the barbiturates, LSD produces weird effects in users.

Basically, the drug causes changes in sensation. Vision is particularly altered. Illusions and hallucinations can occur, even months after taking the last dose. On a “bad trip” perceived images may be terrifying. Also, one on LSD becomes very susceptible to suggestions or influences from others and the environment. Thus news reports often tell of horrible experiences. For example, the London Daily Mail of April 26, 1973, reported how a schoolteacher under the influence of LSD tried to walk on the Thames River and disappeared beneath the surface without struggling.

With marijuana, the dimensions of the drug crisis grows. Although marijuana is illegal, an estimated twenty-four million Americans have used it, and perhaps eight million do so regularly. Marijuana’s effect on users is milder than LSD, although it, too, produces a distortion of the senses. When smoking marijuana, five minutes may seem like an hour. Sounds and colors may seem intensified. Also, habitual users have been adversely affected, suffering staggering gait, hand tremors, thought disorders and disturbances in perception.

Does inhaling the smoke harm the body? Interestingly, a recent letter by medical doctors at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York city, observed: “Marijuana smoke induces cancer in tissue cultures of human lung.” Dr. Morton A. Stenchever, who headed a University of Utah research team, concluded: Marijuana “may be a much more dangerous drug than we realized.”

Yet, despite the harm done by drugs, people continue to use them. Why? Why are millions more turning to them every year?

Drug-obsessed Society

Many authorities blame it on modern society’s obsession with drugs. One doctor explained: “Anyone who listens to commercials or reads drug ads knows he can calm down, perk up, fall asleep, lose weight and ease any number of pains and discomforts by taking one or another pill.” Drugs are often prescribed for almost any symptom.

Dr. Matthew Dumont, director of drug rehabilitation for the Massachusetts Department of Health, declared: “If there’s any single source of the drug menace in America today it’s my brotherhood​—the physicians. . . . Physicians write prescriptions for 13 billion tablets of amphetamines and barbiturates each year.” The House Select Committee on Crime felt similarly, claiming: “The fault [for the drug menace] lies squarely with our pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug wholesalers and retailers and doctors.”

But these persons are not alone at fault. Adult consumers are too. They should realize that drugs are poisons, and so use them only when their possible benefits may outweigh their harm.a Yet if adults take drugs for every problem or tension, or even for pleasure, why should youths avoid them? Is it surprising that young ones should reason: ‘If grown-ups use tobacco, get drunk and take pills, why shouldn’t I enjoy myself smoking marijuana or taking “downers”?’

That parental drug use is a factor in children’s turning to drugs has been documented by various studies. For example, a major Canadian study calls drug abuse a “learned behavior.” “Adolescents modeled their drug use after parental use,” psychiatrists from Toronto’s Addiction Research Foundation explained. Surely, then, if you do not want your children to abuse drugs, you should not smoke, abuse alcohol or needlessly take pills.

But more than a proper adult example is needed. Proper association outside the home is also vital. A study by Friends of Psychiatric Research found that eighty-four out of every one hundred addicts were introduced to drugs by their “friends.” When offered drugs, many young people take them out of curiosity. They may, at first, find the effects pleasurable. But then they become “hooked,” and soon are in terrible trouble.

However, there are other reasons for turning to drugs. It is not simply because they are so available and that we live in a drug-oriented society. What are these other reasons?

Unsatisfying, Frustrated Life

Dr. James E. Anderson, an expert on drug problems, pointed to a fundamental reason, explaining: “Drug use is in effect a signal that there was a vacuum in the life of a person.” A similar observation was made by Dr. Matthew Dumont, who said: “We have to consider what’s missing in the life of young people who use them.”

Very often the problem is in the family. This was the finding of a survey of teachers, administrators and counselors in Dade County, Florida. Also, Dr. L. James Grold, assistant clinical professor at the University of Southern California, noted: “I have found, almost invariably, that the basic problem is in the home.” He said: “The teenager often begins experimenting with drugs from the family medicine chest as a means of avoiding the tension and frustration that exists in the household.” But what are the causes of troubles in the household?

Often fathers are wrapped up in trying to make their way in the world. Mothers may feel neglected, and become confused about their goals or role in life. Little open communication exists. And there is little companionship or genuine consideration for one another. Thus, even though children may be provided everything in a material way, they feel frustrated, dissatisfied or simply bored. Drugs are taken to fill the void​—in a quest for pleasure and “kicks”—​or just to soothe emotional hurts.

At times drug abuse is used by youths as a way of getting back at parents. One son of a famous movie actress explains his use of drugs: “I wanted to shock mother​—hit her right between the eyes. I wanted her attention, even if it hurt. I hurt; I wanted her to hurt, too.”

But it is not simply problems at the family level that turn youths to drugs. Many youths feel that the whole system is, in effect, falling apart. They see the war, the assassinations, the greed, the hypocrisy, and everywhere the desperate pursuit of material things. This repels them. So they “drop out” of this way of life. Their attitude often is, in effect, ‘let’s eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die.’ So they turn to fast living and drugs​—anything for “kicks” and to titillate the senses.

What, then, is the answer?

Is Education the Answer?

Drug education programs have been instituted in many schools, but without real success. In fact, the programs have often cultivated curiosity, and, as a result, youths have turned to drugs to see what effects they really have. Dr. Helen Nowlis, a pioneer in drug education, illustrated the failure of the programs. As she stamped out a cigarette, she said: “See, I’m an example. I know what smoking can do to me. And I smoke.”

So more than programs that simply tell of the harm that drugs do are needed. But how can sufficient motivation be provided so that young people will refrain from using drugs, and for those already addicted to break free from them?

An editorial in the Canadian newspaper The Spectator pointed to an answer. Commenting on the widespread use of marijuana, it said: “Mankind has always craved for stimulation of the senses. Against this, the law is powerless; the only effective weapon is religion, and the generally sad state of that in our society needs no comment.”

Why has worldly religion been a dismal failure in coping with the drug problem? A principal reason is that it has endorsed the life-style, philosophy and goals of this system, the very things that the young have rejected as empty and meaningless. But there is a solution to the drug problem! The basis of it is education that motivates one to adopt an entirely different philosophy of life and to pursue goals altogether different from those popular today.

Many young drug addicts have found an answer, and are now realizing real satisfaction in living. They have become a fine asset to their communities, and are helping others to find a meaningful life. Let one of them tell how he declined into the depths of addiction, but then found a way to cope successfully with the drug problem.

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