A new video produced by American University Washington College of Law is part of an effort to help law students face substance abuse issues.
“Getting Healthy, Staying Healthy,” a video produced this past fall by American University Washington College of Law, aims to get at the heart of the substance abuse matter, utilizing current and former law students and a number of supporting experts from all angles.
The video, which is being distributed to deans and deans of students at law schools across the country, has received great response so far, according to David Jaffe, associate dean of students at American University and producer of the video.
“Our perception is that far greater students have this problem [than those that] actually come talk to the right professionals,” Jaffe said. “A good number of law students believe that any type of coming forward for treatment is going to trigger a subsequent issue for admissions to the bar.”
But the concern of bar examiners, he said, in cautionary tale to students, is the students’ credibility if bar officials discover the failure to disclose a serious problem, “which can be a negative reflection on their character.”
“While Student Affairs offices and state Lawyer Assistance Programs are doing all they can through outreach and education, many law students believe they can ‘go it alone,’ resisting reporting their problem to school counselors or other advisors for fear of it affecting their Bar admissions,” Jaffe said.
The video was produced as a tool for law schools, or for anyone who cares about students facing these “coping mechanism” issues. The Association of American Law Schools completed the last in-depth study on the issue of substance abuse in law schools in 1993. In the study, 97.9 percent of law students indicated they had consumed alcohol over their lifetime, 64.1 percent admitted to marijuana use and 64.9 percent reported that they had used some illicit drug.
Based on the information that was obtained by the survey, the committee believed the problems of substance abuse by students in American law schools to be “very serious.”
Read the full story in the March issue of The National Jurist.
