WOMAN HELPS UNCW STUDENTS KICK THOSE HARMFUL HABITS

One bad relationship college students may want to dump is the combination
of alcohol and drugs.

This is where UNCW substance abuse counselor Dee Casey tries to break
things up. She tells students they are in a dysfunctional relationship and
need to move on.

"I ask them, 'What is so attractive about marijuana? Why do you keep
hanging on to beer?'|" said Ms. Casey, coordinator of the substance abuse
counseling program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Every school is vulnerable to some alcohol and drug use. By state law,
colleges must have a program in which they deal with students cited for
alcohol and marijuana use. Use of any harder drugs results in automatic
expulsions, Ms. Casey said.

According to its latest reported statistics, UNCW's Police Department
referred 190 students to the school's counseling centers for alcohol use
and 60 for drugs in 1998. Ms. Casey has been working in the program since
1988. She counsels about six students a day, she said, sometimes separately
and sometimes in groups.

She became interested in becoming a substance abuse counselor after going
through her own substance abuse problems. "I know of their problems
first-hand, and I try to be realistic with them and tend to be more
optimistic," she said.

The American Medical Association reports that many college students who
abuse alcohol also experience other problems, including missing class,
physical injury, arguing with friends and engaging in unprotected sex. "A
lot of people are in here simply because they are running into a lot of
trouble behind drugs and alcohol," Ms. Casey said.

Ms. Casey said counseling for substance abuse is imperative. However, she
does not rule out jail or prison time for convicted users.

"If someone is hurt, or property is damaged due to your substance abuse,
then I see nothing wrong with you paying for it by going to jail," Ms.
Casey said. "You shouldn't be let off the hook just because you're an addict."

When she first became a substance abuse counselor, she often became
frustrated if she didn't think she was getting obvious results fast enough
from certain students. But now she said one of the most important things is
to get students on the road to recovery. "Even if I don't see a change, I
feel good when I know I've planted the seed," Ms. Casey said.

Ms. Casey tells her students it is normal for alcohol and drug abusers to
feel irritable shortly after severing their relationship with the substance.

"They may feel like they lost their best friend," she said. "But I tell
them it's OK in this instance."