On their 28th birthday, Ashley Dickson was shocked. It wasn’t because they received an unexpected present or because a surprise party caught them off guard. It was because they were alive, and didn’t believe they’d be able to say that.

Dickson battled substance use disorder for many years and began their recovery journey when they turned 28. After dropping out of college at 18 due to excessive drinking, Dickson elevated their drug use from marijuana to harder drugs. Eventually, she developed an opioid dependency.

They recalled not caring if they lived or died and how, before dropping out of school, there was no one there calling them on their “bullsh*t.” More importantly, there was no one there to help.

“I had no concept of ‘after.’ There was no ‘after.’ There was death, and I was fine with that. And for a young person, that is such a profound loss, to not have an idea of yourself beyond this moment,” Dickson said. “No one was there to tell me, ‘You don’t have to live like this.’”

Today, nearly nine years sober, Dickson strives to be the person they never had in college as the Collegiate Recovery Program Coordinator at Tompkins Cortland Community College and embody the ideals of National Recovery Month.

Since 1989, the month of September has been recognized as National Recovery Month. With the tagline, “Every Person, Every Family, Every Community,” the National Recovery Month organization raises awareness for the prevalence of addiction across the U.S. and how, in cities like Syracuse and beyond, recovery is possible.

For Dickson, spreading that message begins by talking. Funded by a special populations grant from New York state’s Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), Dickson works with high-risk LGBTQ+ youth through the Collegiate Recovery Program.

“Recovery is for everybody but we are focusing on them because they are marginalized,” Dickson said. “They have higher risks associated with having substance use problems, with access to care, all of these things tie in together.”

But instead of employing the rhetoric of the “War on Drugs” with their students, Dickson embraces a harm reduction model. With shame and stigma surrounding substance use, Dickson believes that merely telling students that drugs are dangerous doesn’t solve any problems — it just makes them more afraid to ask for help because they’re ashamed.

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Raw stories and experiences are a more powerful teaching tool, Dickson said, and provide an authentic glimpse into the current risks within the substance use community.

“If there’s one thing we know, it’s that fear-mongering and being like ‘if you try it once you might die’ is ineffective,” Dickson said. “I listen to the people … If you say you’ve seen fentanyl in your weed, then I believe you. Because not believing you doesn’t do anything other than put people at risk.”

For Barry Weiss, teaching undergraduates in the Renee Crown Honors Program at Syracuse University helps him educate students about treatment and prevention.

Weiss, who is the administrative officer for the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office and the vice chair of the Onondaga County Drug Task Force (DTF), uses his platform as a part-time professor in the School of Law to redefine the way substance use is viewed from a moral shortcoming to a disease worthy of treatment.

“When we (DTF) started in 2012, harm reduction wasn’t a concept. If a person went to seek help, they were told to go cold turkey, to quit,” Weiss said. “What people need to understand is that this is a disease, a lifelong battle … and brain waves are altered with opiates. They can’t go cold turkey.”

But, Weiss said that because of decades of stigmatized, failed recovery efforts, it’s going to take consistent, committed efforts to transform how our society views substance use disorder.

“We do have the resources here in Onondaga County to help people,” Weiss said. “But do we have enough? No.”

That’s why programs like the Collegiate Recovery Program and his class at SU on the opioid crisis in America are vital, Weiss said. The power of education and real, human stories from people in recovery are the strongest catalysts for evidence-based recovery, he said.

“Two years ago, many of my classes had about 15 students. Most of those students … knew someone who had been dealing with substance use disorder or had a loved one OD,” Weiss said. “Most of the students I see know it exists, but they don’t know to what level. That’s why we need to educate.”

That need for education exists beyond the bounds of Syracuse University and central New York, Weiss said.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 46 million Americans struggle with some form of addiction, yet only one in 10 people who need help ever receive it. With illicit fentanyl dominating the drug supply, overdose rates have reached record highs in recent years. Overdosing is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-49.

That places college students in a uniquely vulnerable position, Dickson said, because of the social culture on college campuses that celebrates recreational substance use. To assume students will never drink or use drugs because it’s “bad” is an unrealistic expectation. Young people need to be met where they are, they said.

“I never tell students, ‘You shouldn’t do this.’ Obviously, I wish you’d wait until you’re 25 to smoke weed so that your brain can finish developing. If you’re under 21, I don’t want you drinking,” Dickson said. “The reality of it is, college students are in the age range of experimentation. So a lot of the work I do is around making better choices.”

That requires a vernacular shift as well, Dickson said. Professors on campus should refrain from making jokes about students getting “wasted” at parties over the weekend and be more aware of the impact of their words, they said.

“There’s this warped perception that if you can’t drink responsibly, then you can’t handle your liquor. And that’s like, something you should be embarrassed about,” Dickson said. “It’s like, you should get better at drinking, not that you should stop.”

But, similar to the AIDS epidemic, creating lasting change takes time, Weiss said. The stigma associated with substance use disorder can only be chipped away through stories of recovery and by viewing addiction as a treatable disease.

Onondaga County may be making strides to achieve this in Syracuse and beyond, but Weiss said there is still a long way to go and he will continue to work to support prevention efforts to save lives.

“I think we’ve only licked the surface of what we can do with harm reduction,” Weiss said. “We have to be aware that just like cancer could be in remission for a loved one and come back years later, it’s the same for substance use disorder. We need to support people without judging them.”

But beyond the public health considerations and treatment options, and behind each overdose statistic, is a person, Dickson said. A parent, child or friend who no matter what, deserves to live.

“The whole point of growing up is to have dreams and a future and what you want to do with your life … But when I was using, there was no dream. It was today and maybe tomorrow,” Dickson said. “I believe prevention and recovery is this idea for you to live, to dream. Dead people don’t recover. That’s why it’s important.”

Published on September 27, 2023 at 9:35 pm