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Let me start with a vignette:
On a weekday afternoon, a group of ninth-grade girls hangs out on a neighborhood stoop. One girl pulls out a bag of marijuana and begins rolling joints. A boy from their class walks by and is invited to join in. Pretty soon, all the kids are stoned. A teacher walks by and sees them smoking. Technically, they're not on school grounds, but they're only a block away. Technically, they're not cutting class, because they have this last period free, but school is officially still in progress. The teacher reports them to the principal, who promptly suspends them from school. A follow-up letter informs the kids and their parents that they are required to undergo a drug evaluation, including a drug test, the results of which must be sent to the school. They are also required to follow any recommendations coming out of the evaluation, and are placed on behavioral probation for the rest of the year.
This kind of incident is very common as a starting point in any treatment that revolves around drugs. What I like about the story is that it highlights the way that the issue of drugs inevitably cuts across several areas of human life and interest. Here, for example, a number of questions arise: Is the school within its rights? Are they violating the kids' rights? How should the parents respond? What is their role in their kids' behavior that day anyway? What steps should the families take? And, most important, do these kids have a “drug problem”? Do any of them? How can that be determined?
This is what I love about drugs. In clinical practice, the problem of drug use is unique in that it sits astride several different domains of human experience.