Congratulations. You’ve made the cut to attend this illustrious West Coast institution – an NCAA powerhouse, home of respected environmental law, journalism and physics programs, and bastion of pseudo-hippie illicit drug use.
In short there’s something for everyone. And as you make your way through this establishment, the classes you choose to take over the next four years will make up one significant part of your professional identity. Choose wisely, because your academic major will greatly define you – both in the work force and in the social world.
The other very significant aspect of the construction of your professional and social identities will depend on how you approach the non-academic “recreational” aspect of college life. Sure, recreation can mean clubs, organizations and sports, but let’s cut the crap. College recreation orbits around two large social objects – alcohol and drugs.
Your overall identity will greatly be defined by your participation in these areas over the next four years because your use or non-use will greatly influence who you associate with, the activities you partake in and your relationship with the law.
For those of you abstaining from every substance from heroin to caffeine, I can’t relate to you, so you should stop reading this. The next time I have any interaction with you straight-edged freaks will probably be when I’m voting for your opponent in some election or fighting one of your proposed constitutional amendments to limit individual rights.
For those of you who are currently recreating or considering trying something harder than Dutch Bros, don’t just follow the crowd, do a little research and approach your enrollment in drug courses sensibly.
Anti-drug propaganda teaches you to parrot out the phrase that “marijuana is the gateway drug,” but two other substances lead more people to illegal substance abuse – alcohol and tobacco.
CDC statistics on substance use among high school students show that by their senior year 47 percent of students have tried alcohol and 23 percent have tried tobacco, while only 19 percent have tried marijuana.
Interestingly, the use of these “big three” substances remains fairly stable from high school into the 18-25 young adult age group. Nationwide about 53 percent of young adults drink alcohol, 23 percent smoke cigarettes, and 16 percent smoke marijuana, according to CDC and Department of Health and Human Services statistics.
Of course most of the stigma associated with the illegality of students’ use of alcohol and tobacco is mitigated by the fact that people age out of the illegality of those substances. Conversely, marijuana is among the drugs listed on Federal and State Controlled Substance Schedules, so a user of marijuana maintains this stigma of illegality.
Controlled substances are broken into five categories, or schedules, that correspond with the severity of the penalty for use, production or possession. Schedule one drugs include heroin, LSD, ecstasy, peyote, mescaline, psilocybin and marijuana. Schedule two drugs are opium, cocaine and methamphetamine, while schedule three drugs are amphetamine, depressants and PCP.
This is information you should definitely consider before seeking out and taking drugs. The surprise, to me anyhow, is that marijuana is listed on schedule one while something as destructive as meth is on schedule two. But these schedules are greatly arbitrary and should only be used to gauge the level of relative illegality of drugs.
In truth, any drug can screw up your life, and there are plenty of “lifelong abstainers” who have screwed up professional and personal lives without the help of any drugs at all.
Conversely, many people have very successful lives after using drugs. Though he used cocaine, you will see that Sigmund Freud still carries massive sway in academics. Though Bill Clinton smoked pot, we elected him president for two terms. Even presidential hopeful Barack Obama has admitted to smoking pot – and inhaling. He also smokes cigarettes and still he has a great chance at the presidency.
Use of certain drugs and abstention from others in college will ingratiate you to some people and mark you as a pariah to others. For example, you heavy pot smokers are probably not hanging out much with those who draw the line with Coke – the drink, not the powder. And you straight-edgers – I told you to stop reading – you probably don’t spend time at bars and kegs. Your drug use transcript is a social code for who and what you want to be associated with, and what you don’t.
Also, as society changes, the attitudes towards the past or current use of certain substances will go in and out of favor and there is always the possibility that drug laws established in the early part of the 20th century will be overturned. Remember the 18th and 21st amendments – goodbye prohibition, and good riddance.
In our country, illegality of a substance does not end its use and likewise legality does not translate to ubiquitous use. But also, your drug use or abstention will influence your relation to the law, to society, and will likely affect you for the rest of your life.
But it’s a free country, and you are completely free to break the law. So, welcome to the University of Oregon, keep your arms and legs inside at all times, and if you so choose, enjoy your trip : ).
The Drug Enforcement Agency says that more than one in 10 of you will.
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