Marijuana: Vote "NO" on legalization for recreational use and keep it out of the hands of addicts and people struggling to stay sober.
Where does the drug problem begin?
I was born and raised in Switzerland. My mother is Swiss, my father an American, which under Swiss law made me an American. I spent most of my school years in Swiss schools and after much contemplation on my parents part, they decided the family should move to America to build a new life and start over.
The Swiss had no drinking age and did not prevent their children from drinking alcohol. This made some kids drink and some not. There was an environment that created learned behavior from parents and adults who drank, as well as unhealthy behavior toward children, caused by drinking parents and adults.
The schools had a consistent message of drug prevention with detailed anti-drug messages. We were given stickers and materials warning of consequences of drug use. This was a routine event in my school as were group check-ups at the dentist’s office, where my entire class would go for a visit with the school dentist.
The Swiss also had a psychologist on staff at my school in case there were issues outside of the norm a student was dealing with. On my way home from school I would frequently encounter an anti-drug message at a bus stop, in a movie poster light box. In Switzerland, the message of prevention was always in front of me in many forms. But were they educating my parents and the adults who came to drink at our house? The answer is, no, they were not.
Addiction, be it drugs or alcohol is scripted. By scripted I mean a self-imposed unhealthy routine that is re-played daily, designed around a drinking and drug using schedule. Even someone who routinely drinks two glasses of wine twice a week can be what is known as a periodic alcoholic, which is a scripted set of behaviors. Not everyone is able to tolerate alcohol and this was the case for some adults in my younger years that exhibited hostile and abusive behavior towards me, towards which I had no defenses.
At the same time I was told that alcoholism did not exist in our circle of friends and most certainly not in my family. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
When I was 15 years old I moved to the U.S. with my parents. I had never seen a drug in my life until I came to America. I would learn more about drugs than I ever should have known when I was enrolled in High School. It was a culture shock to me to find myself in a school where every kind either did drugs, was on drugs or knew where to get them. Having come from such a careful and caring place like my little town of Luzern, Switzerland, I had no idea what to make of it all.
Not knowing how to fit in, I did what I had learned from the alcoholic adults back home. Not to ask questions or doubt people’s behavior and eventually I found myself trying to fit in the with crowd that accepted me the quickest as I felt completely out of my element. That crowd were the drug users, drinkers and partiers who had no intention of keeping the focus on their life goals.
In my school there was plenty of marijuana. It was everywhere and probably more present than most schools, as my school was located on Catalina Island, an island located 28 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, California. Avalon, the island town was a tourist town and party spot where people would come to visit, drink, party and forget their troubles.
While in school, I wondered how a school could be so casual about drug use and in the beginning I truly wondered if there was any other gainful goal kids had other than constantly escaping to go and use. But the school turned a blind eye.
Eventually I succumbed to marijuana and one night found myself being slapped, dragged and pushed into a house. There I was raped by a senior in my high school who smoked pot and became obsessed with Hitler, spat in my face and continued to slap me. I knew if I tried to run things could get worse. Thankfully the Sheriff came to put an end to the situation. Someone must have heard the craziness and called.
A lengthily ordeal brought the rapist before justice and put him in jail. At the same time however I felt like the one who was in prison. The rapist was a boy from my high school who was a straight A student and lived in the Mexican ghetto of the small tourist town. Drugs completely destroyed his chances of earning respect from his peers. The shame and embarrassment of it all made me drop out of school. Worse things happened to me thereafter. Far worse.
Don’t drink in front of your kids and don’t use. It is not healthy for their sense of humility and it disconnects parents from the love they have for their children. My message to parents out there: Never let your guard down when it comes to drugs and alcohol. We must teach kids as much about the dangers of drugs as we know they may be learning about drug use and alcohol abuse when we’re not around. We must always keep a healthy and cautionary message in front of children until they learn not make drugs a priority in their lives.
- Alexandra