At a time when scholars are expressing grave concern about the decline of civic participation and social capital and its potentially disastrous effects on our democratic experiment, it is important to acknowledge the contributions of voluntary associations such as the League of Women Voters which reinforce the role of citizens in a democratic republic. On behalf of ReconsiDer, I commend your efforts to collectively expand your knowledge and to facilitate public deliberation about public policies. Let me preface my remarks about drugs and drug policies with an important semantic distinction, namely, the distinction between drug use and drug abuse. There are many possible ways to differentiate between use and abuse, but for our purposes it is less important to agree upon definitions of these terms than it is recognize that there is a fundamental conceptual difference between use and abuse which must be considered whenever one discusses causes, treatment effectiveness, or drug policies. The causes of drug use are embedded deep in the human experience.
Human beings are sensation seekers.
As little kids, most of us here today at one time or another twirled around and around and then stopped suddenly to experience that woozy feeling associated with dizziness. Most of us also savored the experience of loosing our bellies after a parent driving the family car crested a hill in the road. When we got big enough, we rode carnival rides like roller coasters that combined the woozy feeling derived from twirling around with the sensation of loosing our bellies that we experienced when the car crested a hill. As we got older, we sought either similar or more varied sensations. Some of us sought our thrills by weaving in and out of moguls on a downhill ski run.