Alcohol and drug class teaches responsible thinking

Every year local police encounter a wide variety of interesting behavior when they patrol the town late at night. They see people urinating in public, busting through bar windows and stumbling down Kirkwood Avenue, and often have to stop to settle the ruckus. IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said that scenes like this are not uncommon throughout Bloomington during the school year, and more times than not a student's public display of illegal activity is the result of drug or alcohol ingestion.\nMinger said the IUPD's formula for policing our college town where so many publicly-intoxicated students abound is simple: "illegal activity equals 'expect to be arrested'."\n"If you are too intoxicated to recognize your surroundings, and you are not making good judgment, and if an officer views that kind of conduct and feels a need to protect that person or protect other people from that person, the officer would be remiss in their duties not to confine or incarcerate that person until he or she sobered up," he said. "Illegal consumption and public intoxication are the small tip of an iceberg. The majority of thefts and assaults also involve alcohol. Our fear is people hurting themselves or others."\nFirst-time offending students, residents and guests who receive tickets for illegal activity or are arrested for crimes such as illegal consumption, public intoxication, possession of marijuana or driving while intoxicated, are often offered a pre-trial diversion program from Monroe County to avoid prosecution. For a fee slightly less than $400, one year of probation and attendance in a one-day alcohol and marijuana education class, the "dismissal" of a case can be earned pending the successful rehabilitation of each diversion program participant.\nAt 9 a.m. sharp the morning of Jan. 28., more than 40 students, including this reporter, filed into the Monroe County Justice Building's atrium to face their day-long lecture at the hands of an alcohol and drug educator. The only two listed requirements for class attendance: Report to class sober and maintain conduct conducive to the orderly operation of the class.\nOfficials had to breathalyze participants before entrance to ensure our compliance with the first requirement. One first-time offender was denied entry at the gate of the class because his breath registered due to the fumes of alcohol still churning in his stomach from the night before. \nAfter providing proof of deferral-program payment and flashing our personal identifications, my first-time offending peers and I split into two groups and were directed toward two different courtrooms.\n"Where the law ends, there tyranny begins," a quote by William Pitt, was on the wall of the courtroom to the left. After a brief introduction by alcohol and marijuana class educator Michelle Hall, a full-time county probation officer, my group of 20 was requested to reveal our first name, the legal definition of our charged offense and any lesson we might have learned from our legal troubles and personal tribulations.\n"Some degree of bad judgment has brought you here today," she said.\nI was there for having been in a public place in a state of intoxication some months before. I should not have drank to excess that night, and I should have asked friends for a ride home instead of stopping by a local tavern.\nOther class members admitted to abusing both drugs and alcohol in dorm rooms, cars and a variety of other places. One of the most common lessons learned seemed to be underage drinking is a bad idea.\nClass educator Hall reminded us that the law considers a car a "public place," and that it's not as kind for second-time drug offenders. She said many second-time drug possessors are charged with a felony instead of a misdemeanor.\nHall also reminded the class a binge drinking session equals "five or more drinks in one sitting" and social to moderate alcohol use equals no more than two drinks per sitting for men and no more than one drink per sitting for women.\nA Monroe County Justice Building security officer who is a former German philosophy and psychology professor said he has metal-detected and security-screened more than 2,000 first-time offenders Saturday mornings during the last two years. He said Monroe County collected more than $400,000 from the illegal activity of community members last year alone. \n"Students should take care of themselves and not do stupid stuff like running around the streets. Don't drink to get drunk, and stay at home or other safe places," he said. "You can drink in Germany when you turn 17, and young people drink as part of their normal lifestyle and not necessarily to get drunk ... but here young people go overboard."\nAlcohol and drug class participants had to watch two videos: a prison lecture on drug abuse by Delbert Boone and a Dec. 31, 2004 segment of the Dr. Phil television show on alcohol abuse.\nHall also discussed the topics of defining a drink, the places in the body where alcohol is processed, the physical effects of alcohol on the body, the effects of alcohol on the brain and the stages of substance abuse. She said alcohol is a toxic sedative and not a stimulant, and she proposed class members contemplate the question: "How do you know when your alcohol or drug use is a problem?"\nAfter handing out and explaining how to use Blood Alcohol Content cardboard gauges and allowing the class the opportunity to stumble along a straight line while wearing "drunk goggles," Hall instructed the class to retake an alcohol and drug quiz class members had taken at the beginning of the day.\nPassing out is not the same as blacking out, she said, as the first consists of falling asleep and the second consists of not knowing what happened the night before. \n"If you're to the point your friends are getting on you about drinking too much, you may have a problem," Hall said. "Beer, wine and hard liquor affect the body in the same manner, moderate drinkers can experience harmful physical effects from drinking and alcohol impairs decision-making abilities."\nLt. Minger said he hopes class participants turn their diversion program into an educational experience. He said intoxicated people often reveal themselves by stumbling into traffic, by instigating trouble or by otherwise behaving in a belligerent and socially-irresponsible way. \n"I hope students make good decisions and that they don't drink to excess," Minger said. "If you are making good decisions you won't get in any kind of trouble, but if you drank too much then you have made a bad decision. You have nobody to blame but yourself if you are doing an illegal activity and then drawing attention to yourself."\nIf the private need for community members to cope ever again supersedes their rational thinking for an evening, Lt. Minger suggested people keep their alcohol or drug abuse clear from the public sphere. By day's end, I for one, learned responsible alcohol and drug use most often involves not using alcohol or drugs in the first place.