So… what is “drug positive” education?

Well, it is in fact just what it sounds like – an education curriculum that frames drug use in a more positive, accepting way. 

Instead of focusing on on prevention, abstinence, or scare tactics, a drug positive curriculum would incorporate methods from harm reduction practices, pleasure focused sex education, and changing cultural attitudes about therapeutic use of substances.

but why be “positive” about drug use?

Whatever the evolutionary precursors of drug use are, a permanently ‘drug-free’ human culture has yet to be discovered. Like music, language, art, and tool use, the pursuit of altered states of consciousness is a human universal.” -Maia Szalavitz

Drug positive approaches to education, treatment, and destigmatization have yet to be explored. Comprehensive drug education, while rarely implemented, focuses on just the “facts” of drug use like the physical and emotional effects or resources for substance abuse.

Drug positive education would seek to share the reality – 85% of drug use is non problematic and many people find drug use to be beneficial- for relaxation, for socialization, for energy, for therapeutic release. This is not to promote drugs, but to prevent harm caused by misinformation and stigma surrounding use.