3 . Drugs and Alcohol
Probably
the greatest social plague which presently afflicts our society is the
massive plague of drug and alcohol abuse. Our present society has
tended to look upon this abuse as a medical problem for the individuals
involved, and has all but ignored the possibility that this abuse is a
social phenomena which is subject to group action. However, there have
been studies which show that individuals raised in the Jewish tradition
are far less subject to falling victim to drug and alcohol abuse than
are members of the population at large. This clearly shows that
something in the way children are raised can be used to inoculate them
against the plague of this abuse, at least in part.6
That "something" is a
combination of several factors which are more common in the Jewish
community than they are in the population at large. The most obvious
point is that Jewish people are more likely to be involved in some sort
of larger community group, such as their Temple, if nothing else.
Jewish people are more likely to have regular friendships primarily
with people of their own faith, and to have daily involvement with
other families who keep the same traditions as they do.
Drug and alcohol abuse is, in
essence, a withdrawal from society for the purpose of achieving a
private pleasure through use of some chemical substance.7
The most serious kinds of drug abuse, such as injecting heroin, are
totally private affairs; if anyone else is present, they are either
purely spectators or are involved with their own addiction. Most true
addicts prefer absolute privacy, if for no other reason, because they
know that they are "in trouble" if they get caught, and there are few
people, if any, that they would trust with the knowledge that they are
committed drug addicts. Substances which people perceive as less
serious, such as alcohol and marijuana, are more likely to be used in
small groups and to be viewed as a "social lubricant," which is a
virtual necessity for any really successful party.8
This leads to the great trap: intoxicants are perceived as a
requirement for relaxation and a slight loss of inhibitions, both of
which are considered to be both necessary and desirable for enjoying a
party; meanwhile, greater use of those very same substances leads to
the exact opposite effect of social withdrawal and to such a total loss
of inhibitions that the individual is vulnerable to many things which
they would never do.
Thus, there is a fine line
between low to moderate use of alcohol as the "lubricant" for greater
and more pleasant social interaction and increased use which leads to
the undesirable consequences of social withdrawal and increased
physical danger. The key, then, is to train our children to always stay
on the socially acceptable side of that very fine line. The question,
then, is exactly how do we accomplish this training?
The answer is many fold, but
the three main points are: 1) you must train children to naturally
gravitate towards socializing in groups as opposed to desiring
withdrawal from those same groups; 2) you must train children to
use socially acceptable intoxicants, principally alcohol, in
moderation; and 3) you must provide a safety net to identify and
correct the behavior of those who stray off of the desired path.
Once you look at the points
enumerated above, you should see the pattern which leads children
raised in the Jewish tradition to be less likely to abuse drugs and
alcohol. Jewish children are more likely to gravitate towards other
Jewish children and their families; this is an almost natural
consequence of the fact that Jews have traditionally seen themselves as
a community apart from the rest of humanity. And Jewish children are
virtually certain to be raised with at least some training as to the
use of alcohol in moderation since there is at least one religious
festival, Purim, at which the participants are expected to get a bit
tipsy and otherwise enjoy themselves.
The principal problem with the
Christian solution is that it is based on the exact same concepts which
led to Prohibition in the United States. It did not take many years for
our society to acknowledge that Prohibition was not the answer.
However, we are now engaged in a virtually identical attempt to
suppress "hard" drugs by making them illegal and by interdicting their
transport into this country. Again, this clearly is not the answer,
although I would never go so far as to assert that such drugs ought to
be freely available on every street corner. Availability by
prescription would be my choice.
Most drug addicts would do
virtually anything to get a reliable supply of drugs which are of a
known purity level. Allowing addicts to purchase drugs in this fashion,
as Great Britain has allowed,9
would at least control the problem of illicit distribution and would
also reduce the quantity of crime which must be perpetrated for addicts
to be able to afford their daily ration of drugs. In the absence of a
successful "cure," which does not yet exist, this seems the only
rational answer to handling those who are already addicted.
As for those not yet addicted,
we must devise the training for our children which will result in their
lacking any real desire to use "hard" drugs and in their having all of
the training necessary to recognize when they are using too much
alcohol so that they will know when to moderate their use.
Aversion therapy is one thing
which ought to be tried for children of a certain age. From my own
personal experiences, I learned to use alcohol in moderation only by my
pushing the limits on several occasions, and then being forced to deal
with the very real consequences of my acts. I was very lucky: in my
earliest drinking binge, I was in the Navy, and my buddies took care of
me; in a later binge, I managed to maneuver my car all the way home
safely, even though I should never have been driving in the first
place; and each time I had a "binge-type" experience, I resolved never
to get "that drunk" again, and never did. Gradually, over a long period
of time and a lot of drinking experiences, I learned to moderate my
drinking to achieve the desired pleasure and avoid the associated
"pain" of being hung-over the next morning, or having to deal with
drunk driving arrests, etc. And I believe my own experience is fairly
typical of what most young adults go through before they learn to be
moderate drinkers. The difficulty is that we expect our young adults to
train themselves virtually by accident. There is absolutely no
formalized training on "how to drink and not get drunk." And yet, such
training would be vital to our social health in the absence of
reinstating the absolute prohibition of alcohol use, which our society
has already tried and rejected, and which seems undesirable for many
other reasons as well.
So, to return to the three
main points enumerated above, the first point is addressed by the
overall socialization into a sense of community which is probably the
principal goal of my suggestions in this book; the second point would
be addressed by starting young children, at say age thirteen, with
controlled alcohol use and controlled aversion therapy; and the third
point of providing a safety net would be a natural consequence of
starting the use of alcohol at an earlier age because the first element
of the safety net is the family and the second would be the controlled
aversion therapy, conducted by people who are professional therapists.
Thus, I believe that: if you take young teenagers and train them to
avoid the use of large quantities of alcohol; if you identify at that
early age and in controlled circumstances those who cannot be trained
to use alcohol in moderation; and if you mentally associate the use of
"hard" drugs with the use of massive quantities of alcohol, which is
what you have trained these young people to avoid; the net result of
all of this will be to train our young people to be responsible
drinkers at an early age.
One final thought: drinking
may well need to be licensed, just as we license people to drive cars.
This would provide a method for society to at least try to regulate
those individuals who, for whatever reason, are going to abuse alcohol
and/or drugs. Doctors and courts could then regulate the use of alcohol
and drugs by those uncontrollable individuals, hopefully eliminating as
many of the adverse effects to other individuals as is possible.
4 . Crime
While
not all crime is related to gangs or drugs, there is a strong
relationship. It is thus to be expected that reducing gangs and drug
abuse will naturally result in a reduction of crime, while so long as
gangs and drugs are allowed to proliferate, crime will increase.
xxx.
6 And in fact the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program is an attempt at this. But it cannot succeed without reinforcement in the home living environment. In other words, a part time program in the schools simply cannot be expected to be a panacea for a general social ill.
7 In the 1960s, the Dow Chemical company had a slogan: "Better living through chemistry." After the drug culture adopted their slogan, Dow dropped it. The drug rehabilitation people then tried an altered version as part of their programs: "Bitter living through chemistry."
8 Also, there are many stories about cocaine being used in this way for parties of the really rich.
9 The program in Great Britain has taken several rocky turns, first broadly advertised, then all but eliminated, and finally, quietly resurected. It is not without controversy, but the controversy basically arises from our own false feelings that addicts are somehow "responsible for" their own addiction. Once we abandon the idea of personal "fault," we can develop an attitude of tolerance for addiction as a medical condition which requires treatment. Thus, we should make available prescription drugs to addicts who are, for any reason whatsoever, afflicted with the disease of drug addiction.
