In drug rehab we often hear about the war on drugs. Put the dealers and pushers in jail and then we won't need drug rehab….right? Arrest all the people making drugs. Arrest all the people importing drugs. Arrest all the people posessing drugs. If we can just catch these people who are ruining our society with this plague we can get a giant bulldozer and get rid of drug rehab.
I think such slogans and chants, such as just say no, do nothing. Maybe it makes jobs for prison guards, but it does absolutely nothing in stopping either the growth or use of drugs or alcohol. We have heard 1000 times or more that the way to slow and stop this drug abuse wave we are facing is through educating the young. Education is the key.
Well yes, and again no. Education about a negative will do very little or maybe nothing. Education is the key, but not through negative scare tactics. I think we might want to consider a shift in the focus of our education. Instead of spending all our times on the dangers of drugs, why not spend some of that time and money on the dangers of uncontrolled stress and how to deal with it. The evidence is clear that a lot of people in our society are self medicating to cope in their life. A lot of drug rehab centers are filled with them. A lot of drug rehab centers spend their time teaching life skills of all sorts to help people get off of drugs.
A lot of drug rehab centers teach clear cumminication skills as this help people no longer need drugs in their life. A lot of drug rehab centers teach looking for the higher purpose in your life and how to serve others as this keep clients from needing drugs. Here is a novel thought, why not teach people how to cope with stress in their life while they are still in school? Why not teach our kids the importance of structure in their lives? People are using drugs for a reason. If we educate them well enough so the will not need the crutch of a drink to take the edge off at the end of a bad day, guess what? They will be smart enough not to use it.
People are not getting it. It is not the drugs, it is the stress and lack of meaningful focus and real connection that is filling our drug rehab centers. It is the lack of life skills that is causing repeated relapse. Be for change and growth in people. Be for education. Drugs are just neutral bits of powder. Waging a war against an inert bit of powder seems silly and self serving. It also keeps our drug rehab centers way too busy.
