Morgan Andrews began experimenting with drugs and alcohol when she was 12 years old.

Although she was sober throughout her high school years, she got into an abusive relationship with an alcoholic at age 16. By 21, she was single but had developed a serious cocaine and alcohol problem.

“I was high at work, I was high after work and I didn’t sleep,” she said. “It stopped being an issue of me going to parties to get high; I went (there) to get drugs and come home by myself and get high.”

Four years later, clean and sober, she became a psychology major at SF State looking for an internship. Creative Empowerment through Substance Abuse Education, or CEASE, the on-campus substance abuse education resource, caught her eye.

Now at age 25 she remembers the isolation and shame she felt battling her addiction alone, and she understands the importance that support could offer students with addictions and those who have questions.

According to a 2002 survey of SF State students, nearly 70 percent drink alcohol - the average student consumes 2.5 drinks per sitting. Yet CEASE focuses on preventing the negative impact drugs and alcohol can have on college life, including academic impairment, high-risk sexual activity and especially driving under the influence.

According to the National Highway Transportation Administration Web site, 39 percent of motor vehicle deaths are caused by drivers with relatively low blood alcohol levels. To highlight this fact, CEASE launched an eight-month drinking and driving awareness media campaign last February that ends this month.

“We want to show we’re in touch with the student body by giving them the resources to make informed and intelligent decisions,” said Margaret Lucas, a peer educator and student assistant at CEASE.

Students didn’t have that resource before the program opened in 1992.

According to Michael Ritter, the program coordinator, it was started by the then director of Counseling and Psychological Services, who obtained a federal grant from the Department of Education.

When the grant ran out three years later, the university took over running the program.

Ritter and Bita Shooshani, a prevention education specialist and clinical counselor, have a “holistic” approach to counseling. They individualize treatment through exploring students’ psychological reasons for substance abuse. For students who aren’t addicted but want to stay safe when drinking, they advocate “harm reduction”.

Besides counseling, their services include referrals to Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous, as well as the E-CHUG and E-TOKE, where students can confidentially assess their alcohol and drug intake.

These surveys can calculate how much money one spends on alcohol and marijuana, how high one’s tolerance is and they can compare their drinking habits to other students. They are used in counseling sessions and for compiling on-campus statistics.

The eight-month campaign included java jackets distributed on campus cafés with financial information on DUIs, and wallet-sized cards with cab numbers. It will wrap up with a “bar hop” sometime next month, but it is still in the planning stages.

The CEASE bar hop is a one-night five bar tour where peer educators, like Andrews, will visit bars frequented by SF State students. They will hand out media information and talk to students about staying safe when partying.

“It’s the peer education principle to go where the students are drinking and educating them there,” said Ritter.

Andrews is now a peer counselor at CEASE. Her work involves working the information tables at SF State events, talking with students and planning events like the bar hop and the upcoming alcohol-free Halloween party at SF State on Oct. 28.

She understands that college students want to party, but she hopes her cautionary tale will help students think about the consequences that their decadence might give them.

“CEASE offers students perspectives that they weren’t able to get from friends in their lives,” said Shooshani. “Abstinence is advocated by a 12-step program but that doesn’t work for everybody.”

CEASE is located in the Student Services Building Room 205. For more information call 338-1203 or visit their website at
www.sfsu.edu/~cease.