The following active learning exercise is meant to give you a safe, effective, firsthand experience with some of the biological, psychological, and sociological aspects of drug addiction. Although of course there is no way to simulate accurately the addictive experience, the more seriously you follow the rules of the simulation, the more likely you are to experience some of the thoughts and feelings of addiction. No laws or morals should be broken to fulfill the requirements of the simulation. If, for any reason, the simulation becomes too intense, you may terminate it… but please share the reason you stopped when we process your experiences in class.

Method

For the 120 hours (5 full days) of this simulation, you will be suffering from an addiction. Your drug of choice will be “EYSKUBE” (frozen water). You used to dabble with the simpler forms of your drug (water), but now you NEED the “hard stuff.” For 120 hours, I hope you will agree to live this addiction, doing everything you can to abide by the following rules:

1. Given that your craving for EYSKUBE is incredibly strong, the only way to satisfy this need is to put it (ice cubes) in EVERY SINGLE LIQUID SUBSTANCE YOU CONSUME during the 120 hours. That is, whether you are drinking soda, milk, coffee, beer, cocoa etc., you must have EYSKUBE in it to keep from going into withdrawal. Even water from the drinking fountain or a drink when you wake up during the night must have an accompanying dose of EYSKUBE. Obviously, this will take a tremendous amount of advanced planning. No drinking without EYSKUBE! If you don’t have EYSKUBE, you can’t drink and you will eventually start to experience withdrawal symptoms (1^st symptom is usually dry mouth and thirst, but you may experience others).

If you are serious about this simulation, and you wish to earn some bonus points, decide to use only EYSKUBE that is tinted (e.g., only red EYSKUBE or blue EYSKUBE can be used). After all, with a real drug addiction, the drug would not be available in every restaurant, fast food place, or refrigerator – you would only be able to buy your drug at certain spots. You would have to plan your life around finding your dealer on a regular basis. Being addicted to tinted EYSKUBE means that you will have to plan how to have access to that special red or blue “drug” every time you want to drink during the day. Will you keep a “stash” in a cooler in your car or backpack? Or will a friend be your “dealer” and you’ll have to keep touching base with them to get your stuff? In addition, addictive drugs like cocaine or heroin are not something you would usually want to be seen with at school or on the job – you would have to hide your drug. Making EYSKUBE colored means you’ll have to hide it more – be more discrete – or folks will surely ask you why you have a blue cube in your beer. That leads us to the next rule.

2. You must not talk to anyone outside of the EYSKUBE culture (our class) about your situation for the 120 hours. The only people who know about your addiction are other EYSKUBE addicts or dealers. Society condemns dependence on EYSKUBE – you could be expelled, fired, ostracized, or arrested if your addictive use of EYSKUBE is discovered. If they notice your behavior is unusual, do not tell them it is a simulation or class project. Deception is part of the life of most addicts. To put yourself in the role of the addict you are going to have to deceive friends, family, employers – come up with some excuse for your behavior other than the truth – just as an addict would probably lie about why they have a syringe, or needle tracks, or that glassine bag full of white powder.

3. No one should see you adding your drug (EYSKUBE) to your drinks. Think of it as your way of “shooting up” – you wouldn’t do that in public. You must be very discreet and secretive. Sometimes you may have to slip into the bathroom to administer EYSKUBE to your beverage without being noticed.

4. You must wear an odd, non-jewelry “bracelet” – perhaps masking tape or oddly colored yarn – on your body for the duration of the exercise. This is a sign of your EYSKUBE addiction (like needle tracks) that is a social disgrace and something else you should conceal. You also might find it an annoyance (like the runny nose or infected injection sites other type of addicts might experience). You should try to keep those outside the EYSKUBE culture from noticing this sign – they might ask embarrassing questions and then you would probably have to make up some story to hide your addiction.

5. You must keep a log throughout the exercise (e.g., where you are, what you are doing), recording the following every 4 hours:

1. Are you thirsty now?
2. When and where do you expect to get your next dose of EYSKUBE?
3. What is your plan to satisfy your cravings?
4. What are you feeling and thinking?

6. Submit your log as well a 3 pg double spaced, APA format essay to the following questions, and come to class prepared to discuss your experiences and your reaction to the simulation.

1. Be able to describe the who, what, where, and when of the experience as objectively as possible.
2. In what ways, if any, do you think you felt like, had experiences like, or behaved like an addict?
3. How did you feel about having to alter many of your daily activities to accommodate your addiction?
4. What was the most difficult part of the simulation?
5. Choose one or two important lessons you learned, and describe how they will inform your work.