Down the steps inside the old Borough Hall, a house stands inside a building. The name of the house no longer makes sense. Yet it’s there that many in Princeton have tried to make sense of their lives as they grapple with addiction and substance abuse: Corner House.
Corner House opened its doors in 1972, by which time teenage experimentation with drugs and alcohol was well beyond the nuisance stage. But as the rebellious Sixties shuffled into the burned-out Seventies, Princeton was one place that decided that this wasn’t Somebody Else’s Problem. The borough and township of Princeton, working jointly, and with the essential aid of some residents known for their concern and compassion, created a municipally overseen, nonprofit agency with the mission of helping local youth deal with substance abuse issues.
Its programs and services have grown, changed and evolved, as the needs of the community have done the same. The name Corner House, chosen so as to be vague and unstigmatizing, is too much woven into the fabric of the place to be lost, even after it moved from its cozy home at 369 Witherspoon St. to the basement of One Monument Drive in 2013. On April 17, the Corner House Foundation will hold its annual fundraiser, a casino night, to help raise funds for the facility’s $1M yearly operating budget.
Many in Princeton would say they don’t know much about Corner House. For some, it’s no more than a blip on the radar, a place they heard of someone getting sent once after getting caught with a bottle of rum under the age of 21.
For others, Corner House stands between them and something dark. The full- and part-time staff of more than 20 who work there work tirelessly to provide help through treatment for addiction and abuse. Using the latest models and techniques learned through experience and frequent training, they look to help the community’s teens and young adults answer some tough questions, such as: why do you drink? Why do you take drugs? What has happened in your life to lead you to this point? How can we make changes that would be beneficial? How do we make those changes last a lifetime?
For adults in recovery, the questions are different, but just as profound: what can be done to help them maintain their sobriety? What practices can be put in place to ensure that they don’t relapse?
Corner House puts tremendous effort and resources into prevention, outreach and leadership programs, the aim of which is to help people before they ever get hooked, even before they start experimenting. Special attention is given to area youth classified as at risk.
But what is the state of affairs in Princeton today? What are the latest trends among local teens? What kind of programs are being put to use to help kids get out of trouble and stay out? The Princeton Echo interviewed the staff at Corner House, at the Prevention Coalition of Mercer County, as well as other sources, including Kevin Sabet, known nationally for his opposition to the legalization of marijuana, to get an accurate picture of the way things are today.
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Attitudes about recreational drug use have changed dramatically. Drugs today are more powerful than ever. They are too readily available. Kids don’t know what they are risking by taking them before their brains are fully developed. Parents are not taking time to understand the latest information when guiding their children.
When asked what the most pressing issues are in recreational drug use today, drug counselors in the area consistently mention one or all of these. They’re also always on the lookout for new trends. Especially among young adults, abuse of opiates is on the rise, whether in pill form (such as oxycodone, often prescribed for pain), or as heroin. New Jersey has become known for its high-grade heroin in recent years, with overdose deaths on the rise.
But alcohol and marijuana are always at the heart of things. When Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana in 2012, the going got that much tougher. Though by then, drug counselors were
already up against broad changes in attitude about pot and booze.
Corner House director of clinical operations David Errickson says he’s not sure that marijuana use is on the rise these days, but he is sure that there’s been a dramatic shift in the way people talk about marijuana.
“The idea that marijuana is a drug, among young people, has gone down. The idea that it’s not that harmful has really increased among young people,” Errickson said. “The use of marijuana has become so normalized that the attitude among teenagers, who are most at risk for having problems with it, is that it’s just not that harmful.”
The pro-legalization lobby has long been pushing the message that marijuana is no different from alcohol or cigarettes. And that has surely had an effect. But some parents are also more laid back about drug use.
They look back at their own “misguided” youth and are afraid to be seen as sending a mixed message. How can they forbid their kids from experimenting while admitting that they dabbled themselves when they were younger?
“A lot of parents who used marijuana back in the day say, ‘I used it and nothing bad happened to me. How can I be a hypocrite and say you can’t use it?’” said Barbara Sprechman, coordinator for the Prevention Coalition of Mercer County. “But that was a different marijuana.”
By different, Sprechman means stronger. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the average THC content in samples of marijuana seized in 2013 was 9.6 percent. In the early 1990s it was was 3.7 percent.
So parents might be thinking that their kids are experimenting with the same drugs they remember from when they were young and adventurous, but times have changed.
“The idea that ‘it’s just marijuana’— those days are over, because marijuana is a potent mind-altering chemical,” Errickson said.
Sprechman cautions parents not to be too lenient with alcohol either.
“Parents think, ‘It’s only alcohol. It’s not a big deal,’” Sprechman said. “They want to teach kids to drink responsibly. They want to provide an environment where youth can engage in underage drinking.” She has even heard stories of parents paying for post-prom bus trips to the Jersey Shore and paying for liquor to be consumed by the teens.
Like Sprechman, Errickson doesn’t like to see parents being too permissive. And he said research has shown that the hard-line approach works better, especially for kids who are in high school or younger.
“The majority of kids who had that type of family structure had way less problems their freshman year related to drug and alcohol use,” he said. “When parents had a looser approach—‘As long as you’re at my house it’s safe’—they tended to have more problems the first year of college.”
But whether they do it at home with their parents’ blessing, or whether they sneak out to do it, one thing is for sure: underage drinking remains a major issue in the U.S.
“Eleven percent of all alcohol consumed in this country is by kids who are underage,” Sprechman said. “It is and always will be one of the main problem areas, because we know it’s just a huge problem everywhere.”
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For sure, the debate over the legalization of marijuana is a national one that is set to continue. Many in the field of drug treatment and prevention are bracing for change, admitting that they expect marijuana to be legal in most places eventually. Some still hold out hope that lawmakers will opt for decriminalization over legalization — a distinction that most Americans yet fail to grasp.
Advocates for the legalization of marijuana want the drug to be declassified as a controlled substance. They want to be able to buy weed legally, and they want to be able to partake of it at their discretion.
Some opponents of legalization see no reason to change the current system. But others are open to the idea of decriminalization. Decriminalization would mean those caught in possession would not be subject to arrest, but would pay a fine. Some proponents of decriminalization equate it with a parking ticket.
Decriminalization could help some users by keeping their arrest records clean. It would also mean no jail time for those found to be in possession.
However, there are those, like Assemblyman Dan Benson (D-Hamilton), who see some problems with decriminalization. Speaking at the March meeting of the Prevention Coalition of Mercer County, Benson expressed unease at making possession just a fine. One reason is that municipalities would jump on it as a major new revenue source.
Benson also said that intervention needs to be discussed as part of decriminalization. Should those found to be in possession simply be sent on their way? Or should they be referred to someplace like Corner House for treatment?
Errickson wouldn’t be drawn in on the debate over legalization, nor would executive director Gary DeBlasio. But they both stressed that Corner House’s treatment counselors see their work as going much deeper than just a drug problem.
“With adolescents in particular, it’s really about trying to engage them in a dialogue about change in general,” Errickson said. “Really, we’re not trying to come at it with a ‘you shouldn’t be doing drugs’ attitude. It’s like, what is your relationship or your connection to it? What is it doing for you? It’s not just about pot smoking. It’s about other things in their life like being anxious or depressed.”
Corner House has been doing what they call co-occurring treatment for 20 years now, treating mental health issues like depression and anxiety and issues of addiction and abuse simultaneously.
“We’re trying to create a dialogue around ways to make changes in their life,” Errickson said.
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In many cases, Corner House clients are coming through the criminal justice system. But the agency gets referrals from agencies throughout the area: the police, the courts, local high schools, Princeton University. In cases where judges, officers, school officials and health-care professionals have the latitude to do so, they may send people to Corner House for a referral. Sometimes a conversation is all that’s needed. Sometimes a little more is required.
So many of the young people DeBlasio and his staff work with have no substance abuse problems at all. Corner House’s outreach leadership programs enable them to make contact with many of Princeton’s youth. Students attend Corner House board meetings and get trained in peer-to-peer counseling.
Sometimes, they are the ones doing the teaching. After all, they are the ones who are on the ground, witnessing teen behavior with their own teen eyes.
DeBlasio says in general, Princeton residents are open and honest about the issue of substance abuse in their town. After all Princeton had the foresight to create Corner House 43 years ago.
Counselors are often out in the community, educating parents on what to look for and how to have tough conversations. Sometimes the meetings are in large groups; sometimes one to one.
But parents don’t always know what’s going on with their kids—even when they’re desperate to find out. Sometimes they turn to Corner House for help. And sometimes Corner House turns to its teens, who can address things like what goes on at parties, how have they handled the pressure.
“We tell all the students in the programs they can answer at their own comfort level,” DeBlasio said. “Usually, the questions parents are asking are ones their own kids won’t answer. These kids will, because they’re committed to providing information for the program.”
By making such connections, Corner House is able to provide the services that enable Princetonians to handle the challenges of 21st century parenting.
“They just want to understand what’s going on in this community,” he said.
For more information about Corner House, including details about the April 17 Casino Night, go online to cornerhouse.org.
