Enkela+Q’s+2017+OpEd+Article

When it comes to sex, drugs and alcohol, abstinence is continually drilled into the brains of the youth by the wielded hammer of “education”. Though school districts vary in their application of the information that we are provided with, it is inadequate.

Sex, at least from my experience, is taught in a way that expresses abstinence as the best option, but still provides with education of the different types of sex and the consequences, as well as the pleasure each may be responsible for. Though there are still many issues over this such as the fact that everything we learn is not pertaining to same sex intercourse (except maybe the exception over a general STD that may be applicable). Additionally there is the issue of many states that still focus their attention on abstinence only or even worse, no sex education at all (many developing areas where sexual health is not a priority). While containing many flaws, sexual education is an entirely different issue, the way it is taught however, can be linked directly to drug education.

We are blind to the realities of actual drug education, as we are force fed the deaths of those whose lives fall to substance abuse. Not that this isn’t important and shouldn’t be taught. It is essential to our understanding to face a story of the consequences. But we are blindsided from seeing both sides, with only the negatives being uncloaked. A very vague overview of the actuality of drugs is expected to satisfy us.

We are not exposed to learning about the different types of drugs and are ignorant to the differences between psychedelics, stimulants and opioids. The education system vaguely groups them together and expects us to remain abstinent to them. This often results in curiosity, a kid smokes weed once and may equivilate its danger to that of heroin. Not only is heroins effect on the body drastically different, but the high is something different all together. Why don’t we watch videos of good trips? As this is what will often reel people in altogether. Why aren’t we exposed to the “good” that can come as well? Sex isn’t blindsided.

By cloaking the reality of the scale of drugs and how drastically different they all are from one another, we are put to further humiliation in the real world. Why is sex taught with preventative measures to protect against STD’s and unwanted pregnancies when drugs are so strictly forbidden? Sex is illegal too isn’t it (for those under 18)? Why is the drug world turned into such a horrific scheme when we can be taught preventative measures to be able to go about it “safely” if we choose to do so. We aren’t supposed to have sex under 18, yet most of us lose our virginities before then. Yet, we do not all die of AIDS and other STDs. We never learn about “clean” drugs or how to tread about the drug world “safely” because it has become this taboo discussion among school. We are uneducated and will continue to be so unless something drastic changes.

Now I am not advocating for drugs, nor am I suggesting that education advocate for them. I am merely suggesting that drug education encapsulate more than a horror story that is accompanied with a sheet of paper that is mindlessly filled out stating the individual will never do drugs. We walk out of the classroom with our ostentatious heads held high, as we have a general understanding of junkies and meth heads and we feel above them, as our superior lives haven’t fallen limp to a needle. We remain oblivious to the ignorance our lives will shrink under.