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CONSUMPTION OF PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES IN AN EDUCATIONAL

PUBLIC INSTITUTION AND ITS RELATION WITH THE PUBLIC POLICIES IN
COLOMBIA

Carlos Felipe Muñoz

Miyerlandy Cabanzo Valencia

INTRODUCTION

In the actual world, the consumption of psychoactive substances (SPA for its Spanish
acronym) is taken like a problem that it does not only affect the large consuming countries,
but also the countries known as producers of SPA. That is the case of Colombia, where the
internal level of use has raised through the years, despite the existence of public policies
which reject most of the illegal substances, for example, marijuana, cocaine, heroin,
“bazuco” (low quality crack), inhalants and synthetic drugs. However, it does not have the
same relation with legal substances (alcohol and tobacco), where it has a permissive
position, because at the same time there is a social acceptance and it is restricted to certain
populations (teenagers under the age of 18 years old).

In this article we pretend to analyze the incidence of the SPA's National Policy in the
increase or decrease of the consumption of SPA. For this purpose, we will outline the
dynamics of SPA consumption (practice and representations) in a middle educative public
institution from Cali, and the approach of that public policy, as well as other related
regulations on the consumption and educative institution, through its documentary review.
Having as starting point the aggregate data queries compared with quantitative data
(obtained by survey) and qualitative data (throughout semi structured interviews) of young
(from 11 to 19 years old) consuming and no consuming people, made both of them in 2011.

The context where we worked is relevant due to the analyzed institution belongs to the
State, and then it is one of the responsible to maintain the Status Quo and theoretically it
must obey the State rules.

1. Consumption of Psychoactive Substances (SPA)

The consumption of psychoactive substances understood as a series of social practices

usually stigmatized, which are placed inside a set of –generally– stigmatized
representations that are regulated across other social rules and are established by couples.
According to Howard Becker, the consumption is a deviation, understanding deviation as

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the transaction that takes place between a social group and an individual who is considered
by the group above mentioned as a transgressor to the rules. The transgressor, being
perceived by the others as a special kind of individual, is unable to live under the rules
agreed by the rest of the group but that does not imply lack of rules; the subject is identified
by the author as a marginal.

Becker indicates several types of deviant behavior; however, the consumers of SPA are
classified only in two types. The first behavior talks about the pure deviation, that not only
tries to disobey the rule but also it is perceived as offender. The second behavior is the
secret deviation; in this one, incorrect acts are committed, but nobody realizes nor reacts to
them as to a crime. In oppose way, in the conformism, the individual accepts the rules and
does not break them, but he doesn’t criticize the consumption; common situation which
happens with the not consumers.

1.1 SPA use at local and national level: Cali and Colombia

According to the last national study made in 2008, Cali is at third place of SPA consumers,
with regard to other two cities of equal or more importance: Medellin and Bogotá. In
national terms, the study found that from each five consumers of illegal substances
(marijuana, cocaine, “bazuco”, ecstasy, heroin or inhalable), four people are men and one is
a woman. Likewise, analyzing the population between 12 and 65 years old, the main period
age of consuming is the one corresponding between 18 and 24-years-old with a 5.91 rate,
without meaning that the younger people (12 to 17 years old) don't demonstrate an
important use: 3.43, what it makes them to be located among the first three most consuming
groups, because it precedes the group of 25- 30 years old with a 3.85 rate.

Regarding the legal substances (tobacco, alcohol, tranquilizers without prescription), these
present more differences in the consumption levels than the first kind of substances: their
numbers are superior, which indicates more use and then more social acceptance. The
tobacco is consumed by 44.49% of the polled population (56% of men and 34% women).
The 18 to 24-years-old group is the population of major consumption, whereas the 12 to 17
years old population is the one which reveals the minimum value. The alcohol is consumed
by 90.3% men and the 82.4% women. Who consumes more alcohol, -as well as tobacco
and illegal substances- are the young people from 18 to 24 years old (46.2%) and the
people who less consume alcohol are the group of 12-17 years old (19.6%).

Taking data from the National Statistics Department (DANE for its Spanish acronym) and
its survey, made among middle school students in 2008 in several cities, it is noticed that
the principle experiences lived for these students are related with the consumption of
psychoactive substances, however, this entity distinguished among tobacco, alcohol and

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SPA use. The first category presents 59.7% 1, the alcohol consumption represents the 36.3%
and the SPA use is equivalent to 12.3%. If we summarize these three categories in one
category, it would give that generally, the SPA consumption is the main experience lived
by teenagers and young people, with regard to the violent actions experience (19.6%) and
law-breaking- infractions (8.8%). At prevention terms, the surveyed results, say that the
labor is realized by the parents, followed by school teachers and mass media. With this last
result, we can watch the educational institution significance to investigate the SPA use,
because as we will see, the institution accomplish the double labor of prevention (with
rejection) and use facilitation, although this the last one is not wished in institutional terms
(political and legal terms).

1.2 SPA use in an educational public institution

From the survey applied by the research group, we will only show those data related with
the SPA consumption as a practice, that is, in a context of social relationships where several
sociability and socialization forms promote or inhibit the consumption. In this sense, we
initially see the relation between age and consumption of SPA (yes, no and at some time I
consumed but I don't do it any more).

Table. 1. Age* Psychoactive Substances Use

Age/Use Yes No At some time I Does not TOTAL

consumed but apply
I don't do it
any more

11 1 2 0 0 3

12 1 7 2 1 11

13 7 16 7 0 30

14 15 13 8 1 37

15 19 8 17 1 45

16 28 6 11 0 45

17 4 9 8 0 21

18 3 4 1 0 8

19 1 1 1 0 3

Total 79 66 55 3 203

Source: Calculations by the authors

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The institution remarks those data do not compute 100% because they are not exclusive variables.

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From 203 polled students, included in a range of ages between 11 and 19 years old, 79
young people of both sexes answered YES, they consume some psychoactive substance,
which is equivalent to 39% of the sample, 33 % (66 people) answered that they have NOT
consumed psychoactive substances, 27% (55 people) indicated the option that says that
they have consumed AT SOME TIME, BUT ALREADY HE-SHE DOES NOT DO IT, this
reveals that the majority of young people have had some type of approximation towards the
SPA (See Graph 1). The range of age in which centers the consumption (see Table 1) is
between 14 and 16 years old, but also in the same range it is included to have consumed at
some time but not continue doing it, in which the main age is 15 years old. Non-
consumption is concentrated between 13 and 14 years and after 16 years old.

Source: Calculations by the authors

As for the sex – gender variable (see graph 2 and 3), the consuming and not consuming
women have nearby values (37% and 40 % respectively), whereas between the men the
quantity is mayor for people that consume (59 % ) compared to those who do not consume
(41 %). It is not possible to say roundly that women consume more than men (45 women
and 34 men) because this owes to characteristics of the sample (113 women opposite to 89
men), but in effect that is what happens.

Source: Calculations by the authors

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About the relation among SPA's consumption and knowledge of risks (see Graph 4), it is
possible to observe that the knowledge of these is generalized for all the students, no matter
if he or she is a consumer or not, in fact the levels of ignorance between consumers and not
consumers it is very minimal.

Source: Calculations by the authors

If the situation among young people who are in high school it is not about lacking more
knowledge about risks to avoid consumption, it must be analyzed then, since other aspects,
as the influence factors. It is relevant to stand out that each factor was studied since a
specific substance, but for synthesis effects, we calculated an average for all the considered
substances: marijuana, cocaine, “bazuco”, glue (inhalable), popper, alcohol and tobacco.

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Source: Calculations by the authors

Like it is possible to see in the graph 5, the most influential factors are the relations
of friendship (from the neighborhood or other spaces), the bars / clubs as suitable spaces of
scattering for the consumption and the family situation conflict of any nature. The last
important factors are related with the classmates (different from the friends) and the school
as a space of traffic and/or SPA's sale, in spite of the fact that it is prohibited. The
remaining factors, though they present significant values do not exercise an influence as
strong as the mentioned previous ones.

1.3 Consumption trajectory

From a qualitative perspective and concentrating us in the range of age from 15 to 19 years,
a series of interviews were done to subjects that belong to this educational institution,
independently if they were consumers or not. Here there are only the expressed by five of
them, two men and three women.

Four young people began in the consumption of psychoactive substances through the
alcohol in an area of close relationships (friends and/or relatives). It is necessary to
highlight that two young people (a man and a woman) agreed to have initiated their
consumption in a solitary way (alcohol and tobacco respectively). The alcohol can be the
unique substance they accept to consume (a woman and a man) or on the contrary, after a
time they diversify their consumption going on to illegal substances and/or combining
substances (three of them). Only a young person agreed to initiate his consumption with the
cocaine framed in the same relations.

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They use to share their current consumption experiences with friends (of the school,
neighborhood, in the same spaces) and not nearby persons known in scattering spaces
(parks, clubs). The tobacco is reported as one of those substances that allow the initiation in
SPA's consumption for its affordability or it allows the diversification of the consumption.

Those who stopped consuming - at least certain substances when there was presence of
illegal SPA-, but they used to do it, it was mainly for religious reasons (she entered to a
church), relatives reasons (his mom demanded from him that he did not continue
consuming) and/or economic reasons (he does not have enough money to buy the
substances that he prefers, go to the spaces where he consumes them, specially to clubs)
which imped them from continuing consuming.

Who consume alcohol consider its own consumption as harmful for health but also they
think it is normal if it is done occasionally (especially tobacco and alcohol), likewise they
do not accept the consumption of other substances for fear of its seemingly harmful effects.
Those who have diversified its SPA's consumption, including in occasions illegal
substances as the marijuana, cocaine (among others for the case of a young person) and
legal substances as the popper2, the rivotril, most of them are people who attribute other
consumption values, particularly positive: pleasure, amusement, mode, curiosity, though
always they can accept certain substances and others not.

1.4 Two empirical perspectives

From the survey - close to quantitative data of the state of the art - and the interviews it is
possible to think that definitely, no student of middle and high school has been exempt
from SPA's consumption, because at least alcohol and/or tobacco, socially accepted and
completely legal substances, they do part on consumption. Following Becker, it implies at
the same time a pure and secret deviation, where the alcohol and the tobacco would be part
of the second type of deviation, where the society admits that it is an incorrect act -because
it is done by people under 18 years old- though it is not scandalized so loudly, like she does
with other substances (marijuana, cocaine, heroin, among others), consumption that the
society -and then the State- seeks to suppress from any way, because it is a disobedience to
the rule and also an infraction, but that prevents from saying that conformist deviation
should exist exclusively, where not consumers accept consume partially, because as we said
previously, they have had a limited contact with the SPA. Therefore, this situation is
consolidated as justification to be one of the populations most controlled by the State to
treat the topic of SPA's consumption. As in a method as the other one, the women consume

2
Substance used for the computer’s cleaning.

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more than the men, as for number and type of substances, what is related to the feminizing
of the consumption and not to see this one as a merely masculine practice.

The relations that occupy first place in the consumption as factor of influence for the begin-
ning and the permanency inside SPA's consumption are the friends and school partners, in-
formation that confirms what Becker said, that the consumption has its proper regulation of
be establishing. New relations can be generated at the time that others break as the rela-
tives, meaning, the break of these relations implies a group who considers the consumer to
be a transgressor who deserves to isolate, because he does not follow the rules that they es-
tablish. Before above mentioned, the subject already will be in the frame of other relations
that they will allow him to compensate partially this situation. The spaces like bars/clubs
and the school become important in order that the SPA circulate, buy and/or consume or
they are bandaged, aspects considered as some of the rules to follow.

CONCLUSIONS

As conclusion, we can say that though according to the data supplied by the Department of
Social Protection and Narcotic National Direction (2008), the five year period with minor
participation in the rate of consumption of SPA is the correspondent to the group of ages
between 12 and 17 years, in the results of our investigation we think that the young persons
between 14 and 16 years in his great of this entity can be underestimated and across the
time, there has been an increase of the teen consuming population, which allows that the
NATIONAL POLICY should be contradicted FOR THE REDUCTION OF THE
CONSUMPTION OF PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES AND HIS IMPACT, in addition
to these rules, we find the law 1098 of 2006, known as the Code of Infancy and
Adolescence, which not only controls the consumer directly, but also it controls space
where presents the consumption, such it is the case of the educational institutions, which
fulfill the paper of the control of the consumption for being a part of the structure, but
simultaneously also they are spaces where the consumption is practiced and in occasions
expenditure of SPA.

The educational institution, as one of the institutions of the social structure that favors the
maintenance of the Statu Quo of any society, must fulfill the ordinances of the State and
more when it is a public institution, belonging to the same State, the public policy are some
of them. However, we think that the educational institution analyzed cannot fulfill in a
round way this type of policy not of laws, already be for lack of resources (human
resources, financier), and to what he devotes himself principally it is to the overcoming, by
means of the reference to intervening institutions of rehabilitation, supported by the
Colombian Institute of Familiar Welfare (when it is a question of a 18-year-old minor
young person, the major ones of age they lose this option). Also, it does not have another

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type of programs that answer to the prevention and / or mitigation. In any possible way the
institution rejects the consumption and in case of finding out about some case, it proceeds
to mention the parents or tutors of the young person and to continue with the previous
procedure.

For more regulations, like laws and public policy, consumption of SPA continues existing
externally and inside the public institutions between the young populations, which indicates
that both the regulations and the labor of the educational institution in something are
failing. What the society need are major processes of individuation and subjectivation from
the adolescence, where they learn these to relate to the substances and are not stigmatized
not stigmatizing. Then public policy of SPA needs of this approach, to stop seeing the
consumption as an obstacle for the development because it is conceived as a disease, and to
look better on the contrary that is to accept or respect the diversity of practices of
consumption of SPA, where the consumers are social and legally accepted, inside certain
frames of regulation, not necessarily exclusive and from rejection to these subjects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Becker, Howard (1971). Los extraños. Sociología de la desviación. Ediciones Tiempo

contemporáneo. Pp. 13-46

Merton, Robert (1964). “Continuidades en la teoría de los grupos de referencia y la

estructura social” en Teoría y estructura sociales. Fondo de Cultura Económica, pp 362-
470.

Congreso colombiano (2006) Código de Infancia y Adolescencia o Ley 1098. Extraído el 10

de abril de www.secretariadesenado.gov.co

DANE (2011). Encuesta de Comportamientos y Actitudes Sobre Sexualidad en Niños,

Niñas y Adolescentes Escolarizados- ECAS 2008. Extraído el 10 de abril de su portal web
www.dane.gov.co

Ministerio de Protección Social y Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes (2009). Estudio

Nacional de Consumo de Sustancias Psicoactivas en Colombia, 2008. Bogotá DC. Editora
Guadalupe. 148 p.

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Ministerio de Protección Social (2007). Política nacional para la reducción del consumo de
sustancias psicoactivas y su impacto. Resumen Ejecutivo. Bogotá D.C. Extraído el 08 de
abril de 2012 del portal web http://www.descentralizadrogas.gov.co