| A
couple of weeks ago, in the early hours of Sunday morning,
I attended what many people loosely describe as a dance
party or rave. I was accompanied by a couple of other
old people. We were there mainly to support a young
entrepreneur who had organised the event, and of course,
to learn a little more about an environment that I have
had little direct contact with.
To
start with, it is quite a while since I have been
in a large smoke filled room with music amplified
beyond pleasure, surrounded by people in their late
teens and early twenties. My host informed me that
I should be impressed by the consistency and insistence
of the pumping beat. It was apparently testimony to
the skill of the DJs, who not only mixed different
tracks together, but also slowed them down or sped
them up to create an ongoing pulse that is meant to
be experienced, not so much as sound, as a vibration
in the torso.
Once
my eyes adjusted to the dark, I noticed that although
there were around 200 people in the room, it seemed
as though most of the people knew each other. There
were lots of hellos, long lost friends embraces, and
even people I had never met seemed happy to come up
to the old balding fat guy, introduce themselves,
and assume we were best of mates.
There
wasn't a queue at the small bar, so I bought a round
of drinks. There were few other people in the room
drinking alcohol, most had their own bottles of still
water, some carried small backpacks.
The
dancing was very impressive. I had rarely seen young
people dance so impulsively to the musicÄno set steps
but certainly feeling the music and using staccato
body movements that somehow flowed together.
The
queue to go to the toilet was its own adventure, but
the good natured camaraderie was maintained throughout.
According
to my host, between 80-90% of the patrons were using
drugs other than alcohol, and the relatively open
exchange of silver packages seemed to confirm this
estimate.
Most
of the dancers seemed to be monitoring their water
intake, regularly taking sips from their water bottles.
I
saw no incident of aggression, no evidence of security
personnel, and people seemed to be having a very good
time. In many ways, the atmosphere was much less charged
than in my youth where excess alcohol and testosterone
often led to unfortunate situations. The sexual tensions
between boys and girls that used to be associated
with such environments were not present.
While
I personally am yet to rush back for another ear and
lung bashing, I could understand the appeal of such
events and how the choice of drugs influenced and
to some degree, matched the environment.
It
would be nice if everyone in that club could have
the same good time without using any drugs or putting
themselves at any risk. At the same time, I think
it is foolish for people like me, quietly using my
drug of choice, to imply that these young people are
not making informed decisions about their drug use.
Their decision not to use alcohol seems in many ways
to be a much more deliberate choice than was reflected
in the drinking behaviour I remember at a similar
age.
In
raising this issue in this way, I am not seeking to
condone drug use, but I am questioning the popular
notion expressed by drug educators about the goals
of informed decision-making on drug use.
Young
people are different from old people. They have a
different set of values, different aspirations and
perspectives on life and meaning, and thank God for
that.
Being
informs is only one aspect of decision-makingÄthe
other is the value that we place on particular outcomes.
People with different values will make different decisions,
even given exactly the same information.
No one can really argue against informed decision-making
(who could support non- informed decision-making?)
but what if, after being informed, the decision young
people make is different from the one we older people
wanted or expected? What if, after extensive drug
education, young people choose to use more drugs?
Would that be informed decision- making?
It
seems to me that what we really want from drug education
of our young people is not informed decision-making,
but reduced drug use. And if they can't reduce drug
use, educators should at least try and make the drug
taking behaviour of 19-year-olds more like that of
us old 42-year-olds. Then we'd all be more healthy
and happy, wouldn't we?
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