STB-0189
DRUG & ALCOHOL ABUSE
A MASONIC RESPONSE
W.B. Lawrence J. Chisholm
Executive Director
National Masonic Foundation for Prevention
of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Children
Introduction
The May 1987 Short Talk Bulletin, "Masons Care About Children",
announced that "At the 1986 Conference of Grand Masters of North
America in Arlington, Virginia, approval was given for the formation
of the National Masonic Foundation for the Prevention of Drug and
Alcohol Abuse Among Children". Coincidentally, the Foundation
office was opened for business, in downtown Washington, D.C. near
the White House, at the time the Short Talk appeared.
Since the original 13 members, eight more Grand Lodges have now
joined the Foundation for a total of 21. Several others have
announced their intention to join and several more are having the
subject on the agenda for their next annual Grand Lodge meeting.
Even more exciting, all the present members either have active drug
and alcohol abuse programs within their jurisdictions, or are
aggressively planning programs. And it is becoming increasingly
clear that this effort to save our children from drug and alcohol
abuse can also accrue benefits to Freemasonry that we had not looked
for at first.
One remarkable example is the fund-raising road race organized by
the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island in May 1988. The 5-mile run and
l-mile health walk raised funds both for contributions to the
National Foundation and for the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island drug and
alcohol abuse program. The effort was well-conceived, energetically
conducted, and highly successful. Not only were funds raised, but a
high degree of enthusiasm was generated among Rhode Island
Freemasons. Curiosity about Freemasonry resulted, from both those
who helped organize and those who ran the race, and support for what
the Grand Lodge was doing was so positive that several inquiries
about membership were also made.
Solutions to the Problem
It is the Foundation's view that there are four main elements to
the solution of the drug and alcohol abuse problem in our country:
Awareness, Treatment, Enforcement, and Prevention.
Awareness includes private and public information activities, as
well as the national information media. Our society is presently
blessed with a wealth of information on our drug and alcohol problem
(is there anyone who believes that we do not have such a problem?).
In Western society, it seems that our first response to a social
problem is to rush to inform, and this is good. Awareness activities
can accomplish two absolutely necessary ends: (l) to let us know
that there is a problem and (2) to define the dimensions of the
problem for us. This is a necessary and efficient prelude to dealing
with it.
But we must be careful not to fool ourselves into believing that
awareness is the job. That if we simply publish enough pamphlets and
put up enough posters and talk about it enough on TV, the problem
will somehow go away. This will not happen. Actions must be taken.
Enforcement and Treatment also are two absolutely necessary
elements of a total solution. But they alone cannot get the job done
either-and enforcers and treatment professionals will tell you so.
Treatment must be made available by our society for those who
have fallen into the trap of drug and alcohol addiction. Many
reasons can be given for the necessity of providing such treat-
ment, including many urgently practical ones, but one reason alone
suffices: if we wish to consider ourselves a humane civilization, we
must offer help to those who have the will to seek it! Enforcement
is absolutely necessary to keep the dam from bursting. Simply put,
there must be some real threat to those who would profit from human
pain and hardship. They must be made to understand that their
illegal activities could cause them grievous pain and hardship as
But both those who work in the field of Treatment and those who
toil in Enforcement are the first to tell us that these two types of
efforts, by themselves, cannot hope to catch up to the dimensions of
the drug and alcohol abuse problem. The overwhelming nature of the
problem of drug and alcohol abuse is running far ahead of even the
most optimistic projections for treatment and enforcement resources.
Existing treatment facilities throughout the country are straining
at the seams, even with many who seek treatment--and are willing to
pay for it--being turned away.
The story of the failure of enforcement efforts has been
repeatedly described in the information media over the last several
years. To relate just one striking example, many U.S. enforcement
efforts have been directed at interdicting the supply of cocaine
at its sources. A major recent project in Colombia spent
$400,000,000 over most of a year -and managed to stop only an
estimated one-percent of the flow of cocaine to the United States.
And the agricultural experts tell us that only the tiniest fraction
of land, where the coca leaves and the opium poppy can potentially
be grown, is actually in use. Simple arithmetic tells us that we had
better find an answer that works if we are not to be engulfed by
what are, in the most practical sense, limitless supplies.
Those children who use mood-altering chemicals, of whatever kind,
are looking for a quick fix to the pain they feel (which is
sometimes, initially at least, just the very real pain of growing
up). It is ironic, then that our society often unthinkingly looks
for quick-fix solutions to the abuse problem. This social problem
did not develop overnight, and it will not be solved with simplistic
answers. But it can be solved. The solution is being implemented
now. And it is working.
Prevention. Where prevention and intervention programs have been
implemented on a sound basis, they have worked. And they have worked
to stop the problem before it starts. That's the good news. The bad
news is that not enough emphasis (read "resources") is being given
to the only available solution that has been shown to work. And this
is exceedingly frustrating to those few professionals who presently
have been given the resources to work with the at-risk children. The
children who, given our attention, will dry up the demand for drugs
over the coming years.
Not the least of the frustration is this: Prevention programs
can be implemented for a fraction of the cost of treatment or
enforcement or even publicity programs.
Helping the Kids
The prevention program that is showing the greatest promise is
called the Student Assistance Program. It is a program of growing
popularity which is designed to assist educators, those who
frequently spend more time with our children than anyone else, in
stopping addiction tendencies before they start. (NOTE: Write to
the Foundation for a copy of the booklet, "Student Assistance
Programs: Preventing Chemical Dependency among Children--A Handbook
for Masons".) The two types of Student Assistance Programs are the
type that have come to be called the Masonic Model, and the
Community Intervention Model.
The Masonic Model was instituted by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
four years ago. Its operation is simplicity itself, the right
program using the right people (educators) at the right place
(educational institutions) at the right time (with children, before
they become addicted). "Core Groups" of 5 to 7 comprised of an
administrator, teachers, school nurse, guidance counselor, etc., are
selected from each school and sent to a Training Week, usually 10
to 12 Core Groups for each such week.
The first part of the week is spent in the crucial training of
identifying behavioral characteristics. The second part is how to
set up an internal policy support system and--the nuts and bolts of
this program--how to set up the informalto-formal intervention
system. The third part of the week is spent in "modeling" or
practicing the learned techniques. Interspersed throughout the week
are lectures on such subjects as the pharmacological effects of
drugs, the dynamics of addictive families, etc.
It is an intense week, with an incredible amount of information
being transmitted in a concentrated time. And it works. Figures from
Student Assistance Programs now in place show that for every
thousand referrals (i.e., kids who are identified in the early
stages of risk or beginning use), only a handful end up requiring
the services of formal treatment facilities. Almost all, in other
words, are handled in a preventive manner.
Stopping Drug Use Before it Takes Hold.
The Grand Lodge of Maryland instituted its Student Assistance
Program in 1987 and word of its effectiveness spread so fast,
particularly in Baltimore's inner city, that the Maryland governor
asked for a briefing on this new phenomenon. After hearing the
details, he expressed interest in the program and hoped to en-
courage its expansion into every high school in the State within 5
years. He also committed support from the Executive Office to work
toward that goal.
The Grand Lodge of New York began its Student Assistance Program
in 1988, with the first training week scheduled for early 1989. New
York will use the Community Intervention Model, which is simply the
Masonic Model earlier described but with other elements of the com-
munity (social institutions, legal institutions, etc.) forming part
of the support system.
While representatives of other Grand Lodges are either actively
planning or considering supporting not only Student Assistance
Programs but also other types of educational programs, the Grand
Lodges of Washington, Idaho and Montana have already embarked in
Student Assistance Programs.
The Role of the Blue Lodge What can individual lodges do? Lodges
that are concerned and motivated to do something about the problem
of drug and alcohol abuse can choose any or all of several roles
as responses.
Support your National Masonic Foundation for the Prevention of
Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Children. A national effort is an
absolute minimum necessity when we are dealing with a problem of the
overwhelming magnitude--and international implications--of the drug
and alcohol traffic.
If your Grand Lodge has a drug and alcohol committee or
representative, support them. Ask them what your lodge can do to
help. If your Grand Lodge is one of the 21 members of the
Foundation, write to the Foundation for the name of your Grand Lodge
Representative to the Foundation.
Devote a stated communication to the subject. Have someone in your
lodge identify an outside expert to speak to you, or better yet, you
may write to the Foundation for materials with which you can prepare
a talk for your lodge.
Identify a local prevention program (the Foundation can help
identify local sources for this kind of information) and then have a
lodge representative, with some interest in this subject, sit down
with them to explore ideas for community support. You will be
amazed at the positive reaction you will get from just showing the
interest!
And finally, if you have ideas on how the Foundation can do a
better job, communicate them! We brethren together can make a
difference, a critical difference, in the fight to save our children
--and our country from the scourges of chemical dependency and
alcohol abuse.
The twentieth century is drawing to a close, and Freemasonry is
finding its existence, its very principles, put to the test as never
before. We who are its present caretakers must hold these prin-
ciples to our heart as never before--and begin to address the
problems of our age as never before. And we must, for the sake of
our children, with renewed energy, begin now.
The mailing address of the National Masonic Foundation for the
Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Children is: National
Masonic Foundation, 1629 K St., NW, #606, Washington, DC 20006.
Phone (202) 331-1933.
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