One of the positive traits of Vashon is its strong sense of community.

This closeness creates a welcoming and supportive atmosphere, fosters positive local engagement, and creates a community where giving back in skill, time, energy, and love is valued.

This mutually charitable mindset can be found in many local, commonly volunteer-based organizations’ hard work and dedication, such as the Vashon Food Bank, VashonBePrepared, and the fire district.

One of the best examples of such efforts can be seen in the work being done by VARSA, our local drug misuse prevention organization.

Founded in 2009, VARSA is a nonprofit organization that partners with other organizations on Vashon to reduce and prevent underage drug and alcohol use by engaging, educating, and empowering the communities it serves. To tailor a more community-minded system that better fits Vashon, VARSA incorporates more cooperative methods of prevention, such as harm reduction, into its strategy.

Harm reduction, in the context of drug prevention, is a methodology that seeks to minimize the negative effects associated with drug use instead of targeting drug use itself. Strategies associated with harm reduction include safe needle exchange programs, public education campaigns, or naloxone distribution.

Key programs now underway between VARSA and the Vashon Island School District include the youth groups, Sources of Strength, at McMurray Middle School, and Teens Leading Change, at Vashon High School.

These campaigns seek to identify the connections between mental health and drug use and implement components of harm reduction in youth circles.

These circles need more support than in some other places due to the fact that our island is not tailored towards youth social engagement. Vashon is not inactive or boring, but it is not well fit for the adolescent mind.

There are few places where young adults and teenagers can engage with one another outside of school, so youth can feel isolated and disconnected from their community, pushing them towards harmful activities such as drug use and rowdiness.

Another reason why drug misuse is tragically common among youth is due to the acceptance, if not promotion, of this by our culture. Vashon has an infamous reputation for its lax opinions on drug use, primarily cannabis. Many adults view our community as a laid-back lifeboat that is invulnerable to dangerous cultural norms. Unfortunately, our island is as susceptible to cultural degradation as anywhere else, if not more. On the other side of the spectrum, there are also many negative attitudes that reinforce stigma around youth drug misuse.

Many repressive and outdated understandings are forced on those who suffer from drug misuse, many of them drawing from the cultural ideas set in stone by many ineffective drug prevention campaigns. When the blame is cast upon the victims of drugs, it only drives them further into isolation. Those who suffer from drug use are not perpetrators; they are victims.

These cycles of shame demonize drug users and create an atmosphere of hostility. This is what separates organizations like VARSA from older movements. They use methods such as targeting positive development in the school system, creating activities and opportunities for youth, and community building instead of the more punitive strategies seen in the past, such as the D.A.R.E program.

I am a volunteer in this organization, and after seeing its internal workings, I want to open a discussion about VARSA’s important role in our community and how the organization is achieving its goals.

I sat down with Suzan McMann, VARSA Student and Family Support Specialist, and discussed her history with the organization and its motivations and ideals. Our conversation also touched on the difficulties faced by VARSA as it tries to sew change into the community without alienating drug users.

What do you find fulfilling about this organization?

I became aware of and involved with VARSA in 2014. I came on as a volunteer working in the family sector. My interest was piqued because I could see the mental health challenges caused by trauma in my family growing up – and how that seemed to overlap with substance use/misuse, decreased physical health, and the premature death of my elders. I was in year 10 of recovery from an alcohol use disorder myself at that time and was studying for a Recovery Coach Certification. I became interested in the neuroscience of addiction and how tools for recovery looked a lot like the tools for prevention. I wanted to help decrease the shame and stigma surrounding substance use disorders and help teens avoid the pitfalls of substance abuse disorders (SUDs) if at all possible.

In 2016, I became a member of VARSA’s board, as the Business Sector Lead, through my work with the Vashon-Maury Chamber of Commerce. I have been in my current position as a Student and Family Support Specialist since 2019 – with it becoming official in 2020.

What are the difficulties VARSA faces while promoting change? Is it less about combating drug use and more about eliminating the prime causes of it, such as mental health?

Not eliminating that, but helping that. Most of our work right now is in the school system. We just really want to inform the students and educate the community. It’s all about empowerment, having other options in your coping skills, and having trusted adults to turn to.

It’s all about our community and caring for our youth. Cycles of shame can be very bad, so we’ve discussed that much lately. And it’s a hard point to get out because, for a long time, VARSA has just been seen as this anti-drug coalition. And that’s not what we are.

When you said “cycles of shame,” I found that interesting. You’re saying drug use and mental health are very connected in their causes and effects. Stigma and shame cycles push [people] further into isolation, increasing their risk of drug addiction and mental illness. If I was in a drug misuse scenario, the one thing I wouldn’t want is to feel like I couldn’t talk and be open about it. Do you at all incorporate the idea of avoiding stigma and not entering that cycle into your drug prevention methods?

Yes. Putting out the message that there is this intersection of mental health challenges, mental health crises, and substance use is essential. And suppose we can identify the root cause and get help for those who need it. In that case, we can decrease stigma and help people out of isolating misuse cycles.

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My conclusion: on the island, we cannot promote an empathic culture while we simultaneously withhold this empathy from those who need it most. It is hypocritical to treat drug users and other vulnerable groups like they are not a part of this community.

If we are going to promote cordiality and inclusivity, then we need to make a change to this double standard. VARSA is helping our island step away from this attitude by reaching out and offering support, and showing how caring our culture can be.

Mickey Fontaine is a homeschooled youth and student who has lived on Vashon for about nine years. He enjoys art, fiction writing and the community of Vashon Island.