Pablo Gaete Staff Writer [Click to enlarge]

College students live turbulent lifestyles. In the midst of off-and-on relationships, all-nighters (either at parties or cramming for tests), stressing about paying for school and working, most of us need a little something to wind down at the end of a long day.

Some people drown their worries with a bottle of Jack, others with a bong. There are those who like to smoke a Marlboro and also some who relieve their stress with a long, white line.

One thing is certain, however: an addiction starts with a lifestyle. Regardless of what your high school health class teacher told you, nobody becomes addicted to something by trying it once.

Ever since I can remember, the government has waged a war on drugs that denounces addiction, but presents no realistic solutions to the problem.

To me it's clear -- some people have addictive personalities. Those who need a substance to cope with their problems are psychologically prone toward vices.

People with addictive personalities may be able to kick a vice, but it is extremely difficult for them to do so without starting a new one. How many times have you noticed a friend or family member quit smoking but then gain weight?

In drug rehabilitation clinics it is standard practice to give patients medication to wean them off heroin, cocaine or other narcotics. Are these patients truly conquering their addictions or are they merely trading one for another?

The key to overcoming a vice is not simply to rid the body of the urge to have it, but also to change one's lifestyle.

I've observed someone very close to me, who over a few years succeeded in kicking cocaine. This person didn't remain very healthy afterward, however.

Smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee and smoking pot is now this person's way of dealing with stress. Oddly enough, this individual was always able to balance a severe addiction with a steady work schedule.

Now that the person is clean of the cocaine, nothing has changed. The addictions, although much less dangerous, are still there. I think that is precisely the problem. The person didn't make a dramatic lifestyle change, only a change in the drugs of choice.

It is becoming more and more acceptable for people to take medication for depression or even lack of concentration.

People who do so aren't helping to cure their afflictions; they are only postponing the inevitable.

Sooner or later everyone develops a tolerance to any substance. Once that happens, the pain that was temporarily masked by the drug returns to the surface.

Then it is much worse, though. Now, that person is not only unhappy with life but is also an addict.

Don't listen to the propaganda spewed out by the government or by immense companies looking to profit off of afflicted people's misery.

Drugs aren't the problem, people are the problem.

The only way to truly rid addicts of substances is to teach them to live their lives healthier and to not seek quick escapes to their problems, but to face them.

 Pablo Gaete is a Denver, Colo., junior. He can be reached at pablovibes@yahoo.com. 

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