Straight Edge -- cool alternative to 'Just Say No'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 1999

Can teens be drug- and alcohol-free but cool?

The Straight Edge youth movement offers a "cool" alternative to Just Say No.

Existing abstinence-based drug prevention methods work only 20 percent of the time to discourage young people from taking drugs. In a scholarly look at the enduring youth counter-culture movement Straight Edge, a UNC Wilmington criminal justice professor examines the values of sobriety and sexual abstinence that have a powerful allure for some teens on Long Island, NY, who are fed up with drugs and promiscuity. He urges those responsible for formulating a national drug policy to take a lesson from his findings.

WILMINGTON, NC -- Can teens be cool and enjoy self-expression without being drunk, high, and sexually promiscuous?

A UNC Wilmington authority on drug prevention believes the enduring but overlooked youth counter-culture movement Straight Edge may offer one answer. And, it may have a message for those eager to formulate a national drug policy that teens will actually embrace.

In a study published in the Spring 1999 edition of Journal of Drug Issues, Dr. Darrell Irwin, assistant professor of criminal justice, examines the values of sobriety and sexual abstinence that have a powerful allure for some Straight Edge teens on Long Island, NY, who are fed up with drugs and promiscuity. He will also present his findings at the American Sociological Association annual meeting in Chicago, Aug. 6-10, 1999.

"My earlier research indicates that existing abstinence-based drug prevention methods have an impact only about 20 percent of the time," said Dr. Irwin. "Despite the fact that 'just-say-no' approach isn't combating drug use, government and school officials continue to rely on abstinence-based drug prevention programs.

"Through coverage on television and the press, I learned about the Straight Edge movement which emerged from the music scene in the late '70s as a statement by music fans against heavy use of drugs and alcohol. The Straight Edge subculture currently attracts primarily suburban youths, who resolutely abstain from alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, and who attend 'hardcore' concerts, wear baggy clothes and display tattoos in enthusiastic support of a drug-free cause.

"Adolescent drug use has gained popularity to the point that it may be considered the norm, leaving the abstinent Straight Edge adherents as a 'deviant' subculture," Dr. Irwin noted. "With its lively music scene, tattoos, and rebellion against mainstream expectations, Straight Edge offers teens a drug-free choice that can be adopted without students' being made to feel 'nerdy' or anti-social.

"With its rigid dedication to drug-free values and room for teen self-expression, I see this as a fascinating movement away from the youthful drug scene. I decided to study this movement, particularly the appeal of the subculture that calls for sobriety and decreased sexual activity," he said. "The existence of a Straight Edge scene means that there are viable social networks that encourage sobriety and decrease sexual risks while simultaneously providing adolescents an outlet for fun and excitement. I hope this study will attract the attention of those responsible for formulating a national drug policy and encourage them to consider incorporating some of what is working," Dr. Irwin said.

Although Straight Edge is found across the country, Dr. Irwin conducted his ethnographic research among adolescents in Long Island, NY, over nine months in 1996. His study group averaged 16.5 years old, males and females equally represented, and overwhelmingly white and middle class. They included student peer AIDS educators, high school athletes, and others who were hostile to drugs.

Particularly interesting are the following excerpts from Dr. Irwin's interviews with Straight Edge youth on Long Island:

* One of the interviewees, Johnny, explains the Straight Edge perceptions of drug use: "You become Straight Edge because of your feelings against drugs, because of your feelings against intoxication and because you want to rebel against the way of life that is forced upon you by mainstream society such as college frats, who want to go out drinking; advertising, which compels you to smoke, drink and take drugs constantly; movies; media. You see that and the rebellion against that is what creates Straight Edge."

* Coupled with a strong opposition to drugs is the Straight Edge commitment to "self improvement," a commitment that can be described as militant. Tony says, "We are intolerant of the drug industry and the alcohol industry. You're bombarded with it, by advertisements, since the day you were born, to be popular you have to drink, to smoke. You can't do anything when you're drunk. It's a waste of time. We're intolerant of an intolerant situation."

* A teenage girl wrote that Straight Edge "is an alternative lifestyle. It is living life in a positive state." Another teenager said that Straight Edge offers him the freedom to live as he chooses and is "a movement that encourages people to act out their own thoughts, act out their own independent feelings and not be part of the mainstream society."

* Straight Edge youth also report that there is a "D.I.Y." (Do It Yourself) movement in which individual participants control themselves, regardless of the efforts of parents, community and the law to do so. One youth referred to this as "a reaction to the thoughtlessness of our peers." Another called the Straight Edge movement "the most positive force in youth culture today."

In other parts of the country, animal rights activism by some Straight Edge youth has caused law enforcement officials to list the movement as a gang, although Dr. Irwin argues that this is not an appropriate designation for the Long Island youth he studied or the Straight Edge adherents he knows in Wilmington, NC.

Following his examination of this movement, Dr. Irwin says the development of Straight Edge as a force promoting the attitude of change required of young people to resist drug experimentation and reject harmful drug use "should not escape the attention of school officials and policy planners."

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To reach Dr. Irwin, call 910/962-7420. If he is not there, leave a message and he will return your call. For a copy of the complete article, contact Dr. Irwin at [email protected].