By Alok Ganguly
Managing Editor
On Tuesday, December 16th, former Celtics star Chris Herren visited WA and spoke about his experiences as a heroin addict.
In my opinion, Herren’s presentation was far more effective with students than anything that we had previously been exposed to. Herren covered all of his bases, talking about the beginning of a drug addiction, alcoholism, and even self harm and self esteem. All of these issues are things that teenagers have to deal with on a daily basis. I was sitting next to a friend during the presentation who has scars on her wrist, and the impact that he had on her and all of her friends around her was astounding.
The difference between a presentation given by a health teacher and Herren is purely based on experience. As far as students are concerned, our health teachers have never been exposed to hard drugs or severe addiction, and that lowers the validity of their presentation. Just spouting facts about drugs and talking about what makes them addictive is not an effective method of drug education.
The same status applies to the mandatory yearly meetings that students attend that tells them about all of the harmful side effects of using drugs extensively. The impact that a teacher or administrative figure who students know well has when discussing drugs is not the same as someone who has experienced them firsthand.
During his presentation, Herren said that he thought the drug education that students learn is flawed, and that statement is completely true. Students are only taught about the end-game of drug addiction; dying from overdosage, spending vast amounts of money to get a fix, and becoming a slave to the addiction. That needs to change.
How can anyone expect that telling kids about all of the terrible things that could happen to them in the future will deter them from smoking marijuana and drinking now? If people want to lower the amount of students that smoke and drink, then tell them about the risks that they are taking now. Giving kids a possibility of what might happen to them in the future will not deter them from smoking; kids are more likely to dismiss the information with the belief that “they will not end up like Herren or other heroin addicts”.
Herren’s presentation is exactly what administration needs to continue pursuing. Project Purple and all of the people involved in that organization made an excellent decision by inviting Herren to speak, and should continue with that trend for future events.
