From Chocolate to Brilliance

Chew on this: Where can kids go to get information about drugs? No, really stop and think about it. I'm not talking about who they can go to that will tell them that drugs are cool or that they're bad. Not advice, warnings, and scare tactics. Not false, vague descriptions of effects or pressure to experiment. Kids can find all these things easily, by asking people they are exposed to every day. But where can kids get REAL INFORMATION about drugs? Can they get honest answers to questions like: where do they come from? What do they do? Why are they appealing to people? How harmful are they, really? Does anyone ever consider that hiding the truth about drugs from children plays a major and sometimes primary role in their experimenting with them? Whether we like it are not, these substances are floating around in our neighborhoods and being used and abused by people that we and our children come into contact with all the time. We might as well do our children (and ourselves, while we're at it) the favor of being educated about drugs. We should arm ourselves with real facts and down-to-earth ideas, and not patronize or belittle our children into going somewhere else for the information.

Health expert Dr. Andrew Weil took this idea and turned it into a book. From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything You Need To Know About Mind-Altering Drugs explores answers to just about any question one might have about psychoactive substances. He fleshes out histories, effects, dangers, and positive aspects. His scope is not limited to what is illegal- he includes all drugs that have any effects on brain function, including caffeine, tobacco, and even acetaminophen, or aspirin. The language is simple, the medical and scientific information straightforward and easy to read. The intent is clear: to give factual answers about drugs. Nothing more, nothing less. The idea of offering this kind of material to kids rings of controversy, but Dr. Weil targets them. He believes in his cause.

From the very first page, Dr. Weil challenges readers to think outside the box. His thesis is a simple, logical idea, but one that many could have a hard time accepting: that there are no good and bad drugs, but only good and bad relationships with drugs. Many people, he points out, use drugs frequently or all the time, and nevertheless lead healthy, happy, productive lives. He explains, for example, the origin of cocaine; it comes from the South American coca plant. South American native tribesman use coca for energy, taking “coca breaks” throughout the day. They chew the leaves of the plant into a wad until their mouths become numb, at which point they return to work, energized. The incidence of dependence or addiction among these tribesman is almost unheard of. Weil makes us think about what the problem with drugs really is. Are we blaming the drugs, he seems to ask, when we should be blaming ourselves? Dr. Weil explains that rather than good and bad drugs, we have powerful substances, and the choice to use them in a healthy way, or to abuse them, and let them control us.

He approaches his task from a totally objective perspective. He spews no anti-drug propaganda, nor does he speak as a spokesman for anything he is explaining. For each specific substance, he provides simply facts. The idea is jarring to our minds at first, probably because everything we know about drugs is subjective. If we have taken them, then we remember the effects, and our personal experience is factored in. If people we know have taken them, their accounts of the experience fill the hole in our brains. But our actual knowledge of the factual realities surrounding these things is, for the most part, very limited. Dr. Weil provides us with concrete information, often forming new, less black-and-white perceptions of things for our minds.

I was particularly surprised, for example, to learn that morphine, a derivative of the poppy (called an “opiate” or a “narcotic”), is virtually interchangeable with heroin; although it is more potent, heroin literally becomes morphine when it enters your system. Given this information, the hypocritical stance of “drug education” groups in America becomes apparent. To them, while morphine is a widely used medical substance, heroin is an evil demon drug that morphs innocent experimenters into junkie zombies. Our perception of the situation is altered, and we are forced to examine where we are pointing the finger.

I encourage parents, teachers, and children alike to take a look at what Dr. Weil has to say. The information is interesting, it's an easy and entertaining read, and the reader comes out on the other side of the book with a new outlook. The more educated we are about the drugs we all use, the more effectively we can prevent abusing them. That goes for our kids, too.