LEANING ON ‘LEAN’: STUDENT ADDICTION TO SUBSTANCES

 Owethunamandla Madhlala

@082_mandla

 

What is substance abuse? How fine is the line between benefitting from medication and relying on it completely? The Substance Abuse Awareness event presented by the Humanities Student Academic Chapter (SAC) engaged with these questions and many more. 

 

On 23 July, students in a lecture room were abuzz with talks of substance abuse and all its complexities. This event was one of many compulsory engagements that fell into the hands of the Transformation and Diversity (TAD) portfolio within each faculty’s SAC, and Humanities was no exception. 

 

Imanathi Sonkwala, TAD officer for the Humanities faculty, served as the master of ceremony for the evening whilst Dylan Mzenzi, a fifth-year honours student in psychology, presented the topic of discussion. 

 

The mandate for the evening, according to Mzenzi, was to share the truth about drugs, address students’ misconceptions about drugs and teach the audience how to make informed decisions in matters pertaining to drugs. 

 

The event kicked off with an engaging segment where Mzenzi gave the students an opportunity to share their interpretations of what substance abuse is. This segment was followed up with Mzenzi explaining the concept of abusing substances and the various types of substances that one can abuse. 

 

The presentation then moved into more personal territory. Mzenzi introduced the idea of more abstract methods of substance abuse that many students were all too familiar with. Substances such as coffee, pain medication, vapes, cough syrups and even health supplements came up in the conversation. Many in the audience rebutted, but all were enlightened. 

 

Throughout the presentation, the speaker emphasised the real danger of substance abuse: how it forces one to be dependent on a substance, whether relatively good or bad. The main issue highlighted was not the substance itself, but how the overuse of the substance could be detrimental to one’s health. 

 

The presentation closed off with Mzenzi challenging the audience to investigate their consumption of certain substances and to seek advice from healthcare professionals whenever in doubt.

 

After the event, Wapad spoke to a few students in attendance to hear their thoughts.

 

“I was expecting another ‘drugs are bad’ movement or conversation. The guy who was explaining was not necessarily against using drugs, he was just against drug abuse, so that was cool,” commented Lesego Mafane, a first-year student in mechatronics engineering.

  

Lesedi Marokaone, a first-year law student, shared how much she learnt about responsibly taking prescription drugs. “I’ve learnt that it’s best to listen to the professionals,” stated Marokaone. 

 

Furthermore, Chinedu Okechukwu, an honours student in business analytics and data science, was impressed with how engaging the conversation was and shared that the discussion broadened his horizons in issues pertaining to substance abuse. 

 

Overall, the presentation was a success. Students came, engaged and left the lecture hall all the wiser on substance abuse and all its various forms. 

Audience members were in attendance at the substance abuse awareness event in lecture hall F13 G19 (Source: Imanathi Sonkwala).

 

Dylan Mzenzi presenting at the Substance Abuse Awareness event (Source: Imanathi Sonkwala).

 

Students in attendance at the Substance Abuse Awareness event (Source: Imanathi Sonkwala).

 

Substance abuse depiction (Source: Mark Productions @pexels).

 

Edited by Isabel Burgers