I recently ran into two items concerning drug use. (As an aside, I am a conservative with fairly libertarian tendencies concerning things like drug laws. This means that I worry that our societal cure for drugs--locking up addicts and fighting a war that spurs on drug cartels in places like Juarez is not sane. Also, if all drugs were classified as legal for use...my behavior would not change at all. I don't use illegal drugs because in my experience their use is inversely correlated with happiness.) But you have to love this bit from Wendell Berry on what drives drug addiction:

People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely, shameful, and addictive. We need drugs, apparently, because we have lost each other. - Wendell Berry

I read this around the time that the yearly story on drug use at Manheim Township High School came out in the papers. Here is the story and bar graph:

Story: Report: Drug, alcohol use up among Manheim Township students

Bar graph: Report: Drug, alcohol use up among Manheim Township students

The story (like all stories on this sort of stuff) misses the point. The point is not about drug use. It is about hopelessness. In the case of Manheim Township students, I should say hopelessness rooted in what should be the most hopeful place. Why are kids in the most uniformly prosperous township in the happiest place in America just down the road from the coolest small town in the world turning to fairly regular drug use? Parents are missing this, but Berry isn't. We have lost each others. We have become lonely people in the midst of crowds. We have no reason to be. We see this best in the young...they are most honest, I fear. Here are the stats if you can bear them:

• 3 in 10 students at Township have been binge drinking (is that fun?) in the last month.
• Half of the students have been drinking in the last month.
• 1 in 4 has smoked pot in the last month.

There are worse things than drug use--despair is one of them. We need to take note of what is happening with our children. Are we providing for them a vision of themselves and the future that would give them hope. If not, why not stop and take stock of things?

The saddest part of the story is a quote from the Assistant Principal, John Loose, who says:

"I don't have the answers, other than to say we'll continue with education at school and continue to educate parents on what to look for."

Education is not going to solve this problems. We need to provide hope. Education can only do this if it proclaims purpose and affirms dignity. Two things that our educational systems have a tougher time doing. Our kids are crying out for it.