It was good to see Southern Methodist Univerity finally pay some attention to drug and alcholol problems infestating its student popoulation. A task force has finally submitted reccomendations for drug and alchol awareness education. Frankly, the school can only do so much. If kids want to drink and do coke they are going to do it. The issues started at home and not at the school. The freedom of collegland is simply the delivery system.

This report is released amid renewed debate as to whether the legal drinking age should be lowered back to 18 years old.

The proponents of lowering the age argue that children are doing it anyways in an uncontrolled underground setting. This argument has been around for years. Lets de-criminalize this, lets de-criminalize that…. People are doing it anyways so let’s get it out in the open and controll it. Sounds good to me. A campus “coke” machine in every dorm….

Is this a good idea? I can think of three families of SMU students who would say absolutely not…..

I was frankly surprised at the short shrift that had been given to the fact that last year there were 3 student drug overdose deaths on the SMU campus. The most publicized being the sad case of Meaghan Bosch who died after a drug binge and was found dumped in a port-a-potty in Waco, Texas 90 miles from SMU. Anomaly? Maybe….. Only time will tell. So far so good this year. I however subscribe to the theory that for every 3 that over dose there are three hundred using on a substantial level.

Only passing note has been given this situation by the local and national media. I have not done any statistical comparisons but I suspect that three overdose deaths within the last year by kids under 21 years old on a major college campus is WAY above the norm. This again may be an abberation. Is SMU any different than other metropolitan private or public schools? Any better or any worse in terms of drug use? I don’t know.

Maybe,…Maybe not.

Iam an avid “hanger outer” at coffee houses. I am also an avid eavesdropper of coffee house conversations. Just the other week I was eavesdropping on two SMU students discussing this very issue.

A young lady stated to her friend that she did not think there was a drug problem at SMU in that illegal drugs are used all over Dallas . The latter is very true. It reminded me of a question asked in my freshman logic class many years ago. The professor asked, “What does it mean if there is no correlation between two things?” The student answered, “It means two things are not correlated.”Needless to say the student failed that logic class. He did however go on to become one of the top trial lawyers in the country. That logic must have worked better in law school.

Another time I was sitting in the same coffee shop next to a group of SMU students finishing up their studying. I heard one of them state :”It’s time to go get drunk….” It was 10 a.m.

It is all quiet now. Maybe its the “there is no problem as long as its your child” syndrome….

Everyone thought it was funny when the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at his Columbia University speech stated

“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country.”

A lesson to be learned there about the power of denial in any context……