(This essay originally appeared in The Nervous Breakdown)
I was sitting on the front steps reading, within ear but not eyeshot of the driveway, when I heard my mother talking to a woman with a slightly-crude voice. I thought it might be the woman who lives next door. I’ve never met her, but I know her husband, Al. He regularly drinks Natural Light beer with his shirt off in the middle of the day, so it’s fair to assume he’s married to a woman with a slightly-crude voice.
The woman asked if she was at 85 Joalco Road. My mother confirmed this, and then the woman explained she was here to administer an interview on behalf of the United States Public Health Service, that my brother, whom she referred to as “the 21 year old male,” had been randomly selected for the study and stood to earn $30 should he participate. She wanted to know when the 21-year old male would be home, because she had quotas to meet with regard to particular demographics.
“Too bad you couldn’t pick my other son. He’s a 28 year old male and he’s home right now” said my mother.
When she said this, I decided not to stand up and have a look at the woman with the slightly crude voice, even though I very much wanted to. It occurred to me that the interviewer and I could help each other out, seeing as she has quotas to meet and I’m broke, unemployed and living with my parents.
But being broke and unemployed at your parents’ house isn’t all that bad. You get to do things like walkaround in a bathrobe outside at 10 a.m. bird watching and drinking coffee.
That is what I’m doing when a navy blue Jeep Cherokee pulls into the driveway. A woman gets out, smiles, and says, “You must be the 21 year old male. I spoke with your mom the other day.”
She doesn’t look the way I imagined her to, which was short, older and graying. Rather, she is tallish, oldish, dyed too-auburn.
“Yeah, she told me about you. You’re in luck. You caught me on my day off.” I say, opening the gate to let her in. “What a morning.”
It’s about 70 degrees. The birds are giving their morning recital. Early daylight spills over the top of early-spring-green leaves. Bands of clouds drift lazily overhead on the slightest of breezes.
We decide to work outside at the picnic table. I quickly go inside and pour myself a fresh cup of coffee then take a seat across from the stranger.
“Where do you live?” I ask her.
“Middleton.” she answers.
“I’m not sure where that is exactly. Near Concord?”
“Not really. It’s next to Farmington.”
Farmington is a very sleazy town, so Middleton is probably at least a little bit sleazy by association. I wouldn’t say this woman is sleazy, but there is a hint of sleaze. The voice…the dye job…the pack of Virginia Slims menthol extra long 120s…
“Do you work for the census department?” I ask.
“No, I work for a company subcontracted by the government.” she says and hands me a brochure.
The cover says: National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Answering your important questions. I open it up and read the first page:
What is the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)?
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is the Federal Government’s primary source of national data on the use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit substances. The survey also contains questions on health, illegal behaviors, and other topics associated with substance use. The study was initiated in 1971 and currently is conducted on an annual basis. This year approximately 70,000 individuals, 12 years and older, will be randomly selected and asked to voluntarily participate.
The woman finishes setting up a computer and some papers and explains that the interview will take about an hour, the bulk of which will be completed anonymously on a laptop and afterwards, she’ll ask me a few questions.
She then asks me my date of birth. I take a long sip of coffee, hurrying to calculate the year my brother was born.
“You stated your birthday as October 3, 1987, making you a 22 year old male. Is this correct?”
She has to say this according to protocol, but obviously it’s not correct because I am a 21 year old male. I fix my mistake, hastily adding the excuse that I suffer from dyslexia.
“I’m just awful with numbers.” I say.
She gives a half-laugh, half-sympathetic sigh and at this point I highly suspect she knows that I don’t have dyslexia…that I am not, in fact, a 21 year old male, but rather, the 28 year old male my mother mentioned.
“OK” she says. “Ready to begin?”
And so, on a perfect Wednesday morning, outside at the picnic table, in the presence of a complete stranger, using a slate grey laptop, I anonymously reveal my entire history of personal drug use.
I thought I’d tried most things. I was wrong. There’s a book I have to look through and answer things like list all of the drugs from Box A you have tried in:
A. the last 3 months
B. the last 6 months
C. The last year
D. At any point
The boxes are divided by drug category, such as opiates, hallucinogens, amphetamines, sedatives, etc, all with an accompanying photo and ID number. Every drug imaginable is listed. There are a lot that I’ve done.But also many I’ve not done…or even heard of.
I take mental notes of the drugs I’d like to try. It’s like the feature on iTunes when you’re searching for a band and they show you what Other Listeners Bought. Well, I love amphetamines, so I’ll probably likelisdexamfetamine as well…and all the other drugs in Box C for that matter.
It all reminds me of the D.A.R.E . (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, which most Americans over the age of 27 probably were forced to take part in. Like D.A.R.E., this survey is opening my eyes to all sorts of wonderful substances.
I recall the first day of D.A.R.E. distinctly. The entire 5th grade gathered in the library and a police officer came in with a display board containing illustrations of all these different drugs and explained how they had horrible side-effects and we should never even consider trying them. The cop told the story of a man who, in a PCP rage, took 18 rounds from police officers before going down.
As a 5th grade boy, I figured if I could get my hands on this PCP stuff…well, I could rule the neighborhood.Nobody would fuck with me.
The D.A.R.E. curriculum consisted largely of role-playing where, in a typical scenario, one student played the drug dealer and another an abstaining youth who employed the proper version of “Just Say No” to reject the dealer’s advances.
Not once in my adult life has a drug dealer materialized out of thin air and tried to push their goods on me like in D.A.R.E. There were plenty of times I wish they would have, but to no avail. The closest I’ve gotten is in tourist hot spots where drug dealers whisper, “marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy” as you pass by. As an 18 year old in London, I tried to buy weed from one of these guys and ended up with oregano. Since then, I’ve learned you don’t buy shit from drug dealers on the street in an unfamiliar area. You go to a university area and ask around at bars.
Back in the 5th grade, I even starred in the D.A.R.E. play, which was the culmination of the ten week program.I can’t recall much about the production, except that I had a lead role. The character I played, due to some unholy cocktail of substances, collapsed. My line was “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” (That’s right-Steve Urkel style.)
Between then and now I’ve done a lot of drugs and never once have I fallen and been unable to get up.
Quite the opposite: When I get up, I don’t want to fall down.
Drug Abuse Resistance Education was started by members of the Los Angeles Police in 1983. Today, 36 million children around the world and 26 million in the U.S. participate.
Over the years, a number of studies have been conducted to ascertain the efficacy of D.A.R.E. Some particularly interesting findings include a 1992 Indiana University study that found students who completed D.A.R.E. used hallucinogenic drugs at a higher rate than students who didn’t enroll in the program. In 1998, Dr. Dennis Rosenbaum reported D.A.R.E. graduates were more likely than non-graduates to use alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. Also in 1998, Psychologist Dr. William Colson claimed that exposing young students to drugs encouraged and nurtured drug use. He wrote: “…as they get a little older, students become very curious about these drugs they’ve learned about from police officers.”
In 2001, the Surgeon General of the United States placed D.A.R.E. in the category: “Does Not Work.” The Association for Psychological Sciences (APS) put D.A.R.E. on a list of treatments that can potentially harm clients in 2007.
D.A.R.E. reflects the U.S. drug control policy of zero-tolerance. It was adopted as part of the control strategy of the U.S. government’s War on Drugs. Last year, Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, stated the Obama administration would not use the term “War on Drugs,” claiming it to be counter-productive.
After 40 years, $1 trillion dollars spent and hundreds of thousands of lives lost, it seems the War on Drugs is counter-productive not only in name. Comments by Mr. Kerlikowske suggest as much.
“In the grand scheme, it has not been successful” he told the Associated Press recently.
“Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified.”
This month, President Obama made a pledge to “reduce drug use and the great damage it causes” through a revamped policy that treats drug use as a public health issue, focusing on prevention and treatment. Despite his promise, the president has increased spending on drug prohibition through law enforcement, which accounts for $10 billion of his $15.5 billion drug-control budget, a record in total dollars and as a percentage of the drug-control budget. Obama’s drug-fighting budget is 31 times what Richard Nixon’s was (including inflation adjustment) after he signed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act in 1971, which effectively began the War on Drugs.
The Associated Press has tracked how taxpayer money has been spent to combat drug use over the past 40 years. Here’s what we’ve been billed for:
- $20 billion to combat drug gangs in countries like Columbia and Mexico. Annually, 330 tons of cocaine, 20 tons of heroin and 110 tons of methamphetamine are sold in the U.S. Almost all of it is imported from Mexico.
- $33 billion to promote prohibition-style “Just Say No” messages and prevention programs (like D.A.R.E.) to young Americans. Reports indicate that high school students today use drugs at the same rates they did in 1970.
- $49 billion for enforcement measures along America’s borders to halt the flow of illegal drugs. This year alone, 25 million Americans will use illicit drugs, around 10 million more than in 1970. Almost all of it comes in across the borders.
- $121 billion to arrest over 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, roughly 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies reveal being locked up has a positive correlation with drug abuse.
- $ 450 billion to lock up these nonviolent drug offenders in federal prisons alone. Half of all federal prisoners last year in the U.S. were incarcerated for drug offenses.
- $215 billion per year, estimated by the Justice Department, for “an overburdened justice system, a strained health care system, lost productivity and environmental destruction.”
And I thought I’d spent a lot of money on drugs and had nothing to show for it.
When I’m done with the computer the interviewer asks me a few questions about my employment, insurance, household income, etc., and then we’re done. I sign an interview payment receipt and the woman counts out 3 crisp 10s and lays them in my hand. My time as a 21 year old male is officially over.
I walk the interviewer to the gate and wish her well.
“What an interesting job you have…traveling to people’s homes, setting your own hours.” I say.
“Yes, I enjoy it.” she says. “I get to meet many interesting people. The only thing is that if I ever run into somebody in town or at the grocery store or something, I don’t know their name.”
“Well, if I ever see you, just call me 21 year old male.” I say
It’s now around 11 o’clock, giving me five hours before my mother comes home. I should probably go fill out some job applications. But it’s an awfully nice day. And I’ve got a lot on my mind.
Had I taken D.A.R.E. more seriously and never used drugs, would I be a broke, unemployed 28 year old male living at home?
If the War on Drugs has failed, then who is the victor? Drugs? Drug dealers? Drug users?
What, precisely, is implicit in the reality that America has 5% of the world’s population but uses 50% of its illegal drugs…and has 25% of its prisoners?
Is Middleton a sleazy town?
Such matters deserve a deeper consideration.
But I’m all out of weed. I have no car. And unlike in D.A.R.E., drug dealers don’t just materialize while you’re walking down the street. Especially not on Joalco Road in Strafford, New Hampshire.
Besides, while drug use rates haven’t changed much after 40 years and $1 trillion spent, the prices have. I’ll be lucky to get a few joints worth out of $30 of today’s hydroponic shit. As a generation of D.A.R.E. – mockers know: Drugs Are Really Expensive.
But there are other options.
I hear Al whistling from his porch. His shirt is off. There’s a koozy on the railing.
“Yo Al, I’m comin’ over buddy. You owe me from last time.”
