Photo by Stephanie Scott

Last December during finals week, Helen went on a “study bender.”

Like she does often when it comes down to crunch time, Helen, then a junior interior design major, took Adderall to help her make it through a mountain of stress-inducing projects.

“When you take Adderall, it makes it so you’re really focused on what you’re doing,” she says. Coffee doesn’t help – it doesn’t make her concentrate, only stay awake. “If I’ve taken Adderall, I can turn on my iPod and get in the zone.”

But the bender turned into a marathon.

After four days and no sleep, Helen started to feel the side effects. When her jaw locked up, she chewed gum. An occasional cigarette break dampened her shakes for a little, but they never disappeared. Eventually, she can’t remember when, she passed a threshold.

“At that point, I was hallucinating and not there. That’s really unhealthy and I wouldn’t recommend it,” she says. “If I were a normal person, I would be concerned.”

A few months later during mid-terms, Helen went on another bender, taking at least one time-release pill – which can keep her awake for up to 11 hours at a time – every day for three weeks. She recently transferred from Colorado State University to Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, but chose to remain anonymous because she uses Adderall without a prescription.

“I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to Adderall because I don’t take it on a daily basis,” she says, mentioning that she only buys and keeps 2 to 3 pills at a time. “I just take one when I need to study. It’s like steroids.”

And Helen is not alone.

Adderall, a stimulant used to treat Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, is breaking the stereotype that drug abuse is always recreational. A 2008 study by the National Institute of Drug Abuse looked at over 35 years of drug trends and found college students are twice as likely to abuse prescription stimulants as their peers outside of college.

“I believe prescription drugs can be very dangerous and there’s a reason they are controlled,” says Mari Strombom, the acting director of residence life at CSU. “It concerns me when people are using prescription drugs to self-medicate. I believe there is the potential for future harm.”

Not only is Adderall abuse seen as acceptable, but the pills are also more readily available than ever. The FDA estimates around 30 million Adderall prescriptions were written in the U.S. between 1999 and 2003, more than any other country.

Research suggests that Adderall abuse is a cultural phenomenon. A 2005 report in the journal “Addiction” found connections between a high-stress college environment and Adderall abuse. At institutions with strict admissions standards, such as Ivy League schools, the usage rate was as high as 25 percent – a number that continues to grow.

Beyond Adderall and the Study Hall

Adderall is just one aspect of the legal drug culture. Prescription drug abuse is a growing trend across college campuses and the United States as a whole. According to the 2009 National Collegiate Health Assessment, an annual survey of over 80,000 college students, nearly 13 percent of students reported that they abused prescription drugs, the third most commonly used substances behind alcohol and marijuana.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase [in prescription drug abuse] in the past 10 years,” says Jim Weber, director of the DAY Program, a substance abuse counseling program at CSU. “It’s much more acceptable to this current generation.”

From 1999 to 2004, the number of young adults aged 15 to 24 who died from unintentional overdose nearly doubled, according to a 2007 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the drugs used, most were prescription painkillers like OxyContin – heroin’s legal equivalent – which Weber claims can be the most addictive.

“Its perceived safety is equal to risk,” Weber says. “Culturally, there’s this divide. We don’t see pills as bad. This contributes to this false sense of safety and security that says ‘It’s safe because a doctor gave it to me.’”

Along with depressants like Xanax, stimulants and painkillers make up a trifecta of the most highly abused prescriptions. Adderall and OxyContin are both classified as schedule II narcotics by the Drug Enforcement Administration, sharing a place alongside cocaine and methamphetamine.

Despite the numbers, education and research efforts targeting college students have been few and far between. The NCHA only recently included specific questions about prescriptions – much as they have done with alcohol and marijuana since the survey began in 2000 – making it difficult to draw any broad, long-term conclusions about student abuse.

After participating since 2003, CSU stopped giving the NCHA survey to everyone but student athletes in the spring of 2008 – the same semester prescription drug questions were introduced.

“We just wanted behavioral data about our students,” says Debra Morris, a health educator with the CSU Health Network who helped administer the survey. “Why are prescription drugs not included? I just don’t know. So many students come to university with prescription drugs, and other people will want to use them to stay awake longer. So yes, I think it’s a concern.”

The Other Side of Prescription Addiction

Eric Lintz, a detective with the CSU Police Department and Northern Colorado Drug Task Force, claims that even at the law enforcement level, prescription drugs are not a hot topic.

“It’s not fancy, it’s not glamorous,” Lintz says. “Someone in the office says, “I’m going to get a guy with three grams of coke,’ compared to ‘I’m going to buy three grams of pills.’ It’s not the same. It’s not sexy.”

In the past twelve months, Lintz claims that around a dozen college-aged students were arrested for selling heroin to undercover officers in Northern Colorado. Heroin is a cheap alternative to the more expensive prescription opioids.

“These kids at one time were majoring in school,” Lintz says. “But as they drop out they still have to eat and still have to live, so they go to the only thing they know. And that’s selling drugs.”

The 2005 “Addiction” study adds weight to Lintz’s experience. It found that students who abused prescription stimulants were 20 times more likely to use cocaine and 10 times more likely to use marijuana.

“If you’re doing something that doesn’t require brain power but just focus, my friends and I will smoke weed,” Helen admits, saying that marijuana is better than cigarettes for counteracting the side effects of Adderall. In addition, she has taken Xanax, ecstasy, Ambien and acid.

Despite its perceived prevalence on a college campus, prescription drug abuse at CSU is hardly documented. David McKelfresh, the executive director of assessment and research for the division of student affairs, and Pam McCracken, the communications director for the CSU Health Network, both say the university is not collecting data on prescription drug abuse by CSU students.

“When it comes to feeding the mind or feeding the addiction, the addiction wins,” Lintz believes.

For now, Weber is the main point of contact for students who have struggled with abuse. A point he stresses to students is that taking drugs without a prescription is a felony, no matter how they are taken or sold.

“They’re safe if used in accordance with how they’re prescribed,” Lintz says. Like several officials, he relates prescription drug education efforts to alcohol in the wake of Sam Spady’s death in 2004 – as reactionary. “I think the problem is bigger than even law enforcement recognizes. I hope it doesn’t take someone OD’ing for the community to wake up to the problem.”

When asked if she could make it through finals without the help of Adderall, Helen hesitates.

“None of it’s safe, obviously, but when I take it I know I’m not going to die,” she says. “Everything other than Adderall I take recreationally. And I don’t do that often. I could do finals week [without it], but why would I want to? It would be counter-productive.”

Photo by Chelsea Dunfee

Pint glasses of Red Bull line the bar with shot glasses filled with Jägermeister balancing on the rims. A crowd forms as the first shot is tipped over, creating a chain reaction and knocking over shot after shot. Eager hands reach for the glasses as the final shot makes it tumultuous splash, ending yet another successful “Jäger-train.”

But as it turns out, students are getting more than just entertainment out of this lighthearted way to consumer Jägerbombs— they’re getting intoxicated faster without knowing it. As the consumption of energy drinks and alcohol becomes more popular, people may be inclined to develop a dependency on alcohol, according to a study by the University of Florida published in April in the journal “Addictive Behaviors.”

“Drinkers [may] underestimate their levels of intoxication and consume larger quantities of alcohol,” says Dennis Thombs, co-author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Science and Community Health at UF. In a 2008 study, Thombs theorizes that this may increase the tolerance for alcohol, creating a “chronic pattern of drinking.”

Energy drinks use alone has grown exponentially in the last several years and become a necessary part of college life as a quick perk for the sleep deprived, according to “Beyond the Buzz: Inside Energy Drinks,” an article from the summer 2008 issue of College Avenue. Mix that with alcohol, and students may have an evolved addiction, merging two into one.

While bars are seemingly making profit from Jägerbombs and other similar beverages, the debate is on among students about whether consuming the drinks provides an added perk or pitfall.

“I get really tired when I drink, so having a little bit of an upper makes the experience that much better,” says Jordan Kelly, a sophomore biological sciences major. “The fact that it’s double the high gives energy drinks and alcohol its appeal. You can have the best of both worlds. You can drink without feeling like you’re going to pass out.”

And these actions are exactly what the CSU Health Network wants students to avoid. The consequences of mixing alcohol with high-caffeine beverages is a riskier alternative to drinking alcohol alone, says Jane Higgins, a medical doctor and staff physician at Hartshorn Health Services.

“You get the depressant effects of alcohol and you get the increased perception of performance enhancement from energy drinks,” she says. “Your skills are worse, but you think they’re better.”

Abbie Jefferson, a junior psychology major, says she doesn’t enjoy mixing energy drinks and alcohol, and she makes an effort to avoid the drinks.

“Energy drinks taste [bad], and I don’t like what’s in them,” Jefferson says. “If you’re going to drink something with alcohol, stick with coffee or [soda], not something with so many chemicals in it.”

In Thomb’s study, he explains there are more than added chemicals in energy drinks that contribute and encourage the behavior produced when mixing an energy drink with alcohol, just to mask the taste of alcohol, which may affect how fast a drink is consumed.

“It masks the liquor pretty well,” says Jeremy Kempter, owner of Luscious Nectar, a bar located on Linden and Jefferson streets. “People may drink it faster, which may [also] play a role in it. The energy drinks have a strong overwhelming flavor with a lot of sugar.”

Tiffany Knauer, a sophomore communication studies major, is an energy drink and alcohol fan. But the appeal for Knauer doesn’t have anything to do with the delayed awareness of intoxication.

“I usually drink six nights a week and I probably drink alcohol with energy drinks about three times a week,” Knauer says as she sits inside Luscious Nectar with a Red Bull and vodka in front of her. “I personally think that alcohol is alcohol, and people are just trying to find reasons for their behavior. All an energy drink is [is] sugar. You might get a little hyper, but it’s the alcohol that’s the issue.”

Sugar and alcohol aside, caffeine is the ultimate suspect that plays a large role in the effects of mixing the two conflicting substances. Thombs keeps this in mind, and in a phone interview, says he intends to monitor the caffeine levels in blood tests for a future follow-up study.

Despite the risky conclusions, Kempter, who says it’s not unusual to go through two cases or 48 cans of Red Bull a week, can believe the findings, although he has no real way of confirming them.

“It’s not like we have a problem with people who drink [energy drinks and alcohol],” he says. “[Those] people aren’t more rowdy than anyone else so there’s just no indication, but it’s not something we make a point to monitor.”

Meanwhile, less than a mile away, Bob Pischer, the general manager of Trailhead Tavern, goes through up to 120 cans, or five cases, in a week because of the Jägerbomb’s popularity. But he’s more skeptical than worried about any ban on serving energy drinks with alcohol, saying the news coverage is just another media scare.

“Alcohol was promoting risky behavior way before [mixing it with] energy drinks, and I don’t think that energy drinks promote that,” he says. “I think it’s a gimmick. Every night it seems like the media [says something new is] bad for you.”

At Mojeaux’s Bar and Grill, bartender Laura Marchelya says they go through only 24 cans, or one case, of Red Bull a week, and she agrees with Pischer. Although Mojeaux’s only has three regular customers who ask for energy drinks and alcohol, she still has reservations about the study.

“I read some studies on how energy drinks and alcohol can affect behavior,” Marchelya explains. “I feel like a lot of the comments about it have been [regarding] rave-type situations, like all-night dance parties.”

Many people feel the trend has received a lot of media attention over the years because this is still an issue for college-aged students to be aware of. Yet, grabbing their attention is harder than it seems, Higgins says.

“A big adverse effect captures attention for awhile,” she says. “Whether it would still be influential [after several years], I don’t know. As a health care provider, I remember [these kinds of events], but as a student coming in just hearing about it, it probably wouldn’t make a big impact.”

Teaching students to be responsible first is the way to go, Jefferson says, and after that, maybe then the public will start to see a natural regression in the level of consumption.

“Kids are going to do what they want, when they want,” Jefferson adds. “More education and more [valid studies] about the potential hazards could help.”

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

From outside, the two-story cottage just north of the Colorado State University campus looks much as it did in 1902 – simple gray stone walls, red-trimmed roof and a single tall window on the second floor. Today, sandwiched between two office complexes, the building is easy to miss.

A surveillance camera housed in black glass and a small sign by the doorbell give the only indication of what is inside: Medicinal Gardens of Colorado, 420 S. Howes St.

Like most medical marijuana dispensaries, or MMDs, a visitor must ring the bell before being allowed inside. On an afternoon in late March, three staff members mill around a small waiting room – wearing professional nametags, they are the cannabis equivalent of Target or Best Buy employees. The marijuana is sold in a separate room, displayed in glass jars with labels describing the strain and dosage.

Tim Gordon is well-versed in the history of the cottage. He lists a number of different uses since the turn of the century – a school, a train depot, a farmer’s carriage house. Gordon, a 36-year-old Army veteran with black shoulder-length dreadlocks, is the co-owner of Medicinal Gardens. Since opening in June 2009, he and business partner Travis Cutbirth have become the go-to pot experts for patients and city officials alike.

“Travis and I know the medicine, we know the laws,” says Gordon, sitting in a small classroom on the second floor where he teaches courses such as how to cook with cannabis. “We’re good growers and good caregivers. I think I have one of the larger patient bases in Larimer County because of that.”

Gordon estimates 70 percent of his clients are around 40 years old, and a subdued atmosphere is one way Medicinal Gardens appeals to this majority. Shying away from stoner-culture imagery – a few blocks south off Elizabeth Street, the MMJ Dispensary uses a cannabis leaf for a symbol – was a conscious choice.

“Medical marijuana has never been scary when it’s medicine,” Gordon says. “I want people to feel comfortable to bring their children inside, sit in the lobby and get their medicine.”

Medicinal Gardens doesn’t just show the evolution of a Fort Collins landmark – it is at the forefront of an issue that has exploded across Colorado in the past year. Today, the Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry estimates there are nearly 63,000 registered patients in the state, up from just 5,000 in March 2009.

Gordon and Cutbirth are navigating a burgeoning industry that, despite their greatest efforts, is in danger of being stripped to the bone by September 2010.

“They’re making rules in the fear of marijuana,” Gordon says, referring to the mish-mash of legislation that has swamped state and local government. “They know it’s legal, but they fear it. Does medical reefer exist? Hell yeah, it exists.”

The Green Rush

MMDs are a budding sight in Fort Collins, but medical marijuana has been legal for nearly a decade in Colorado. In November 2000, voters passed Amendment 20, making it a treatment option for patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma, AIDS and other forms of chronic or severe pain. It also identified a key player in the new legal cannabis world – the primary caregiver, someone who “has significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient.”

On the surface, it was a major victory for pot advocates and a blessing for patients. But Larimer County District Attorney Larry Abrahamson claims a lack of foresight led many to take advantage of the laws, blindsiding government officials.

Of the 14 states with legal marijuana, Colorado is the only one to make access a part of its constitution. Because state amendments are much more difficult to change than statutes, Abrahamson calls this a mistake.

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

“There’s very little that is clear and unambiguous about the issue,” Fort Collins Police Services Cpt. Jerry Schiager says. Others agree the amendment is riddled with drawbacks. It places a heavy burden on city governments to make zoning restrictions and makes no mention of MMDs or cultivators.

“Marijuana is still a pretty low priority drug,” Schiager says. “We have methamphetamine, coke, some of those other things that are a bigger public concern. We didn’t follow [medical marijuana] until it fell into our laps.”

Schiager points to 2009 as the beginning of the current pot industry boom. In August, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment loosely defined the duties of a caregiver – “significant responsibility” could be interpreted as simply providing marijuana through a storefront – and lifted a previous restriction that said they could only claim five patients.

While patients are not required to designate a caregiver, Gordon says many don’t have the means or know-how to grow in their homes. Local entrepreneurs filled this need, sometimes acting as caregivers for 150 patients or more, Abrahamson says.

“The combination of those things really opened the door for the profit making-retail model,” Schiager says. “The restrictions that were in place had kept it really underground and small.”

Suddenly, the rush was on.

Like the plants they sell, MMDs grew organically, popping up in shopping centers all around Fort Collins. In early 2009, there were three registered commercial MMDs. When the city put a moratorium on sales tax licenses in December, there were 36 – three more than the number of licensed liquor stores in March.

Now, state lawmakers are scrambling to keep up. Their biggest question: How do you regulate a business where, according to Abrahamson, people are able to grow a pound of marijuana for $300 and sell it for $5,000 from storefronts – the legal equivalent of large-scale drug dealing?

“They found out they could make a lot of money really fast,” says Abrahamson, although he didn’t name any specific Fort Collins businesses. “Dispensaries are huge money makers.”

“A Nightmare”

MMD owners in Fort Collins, however, claim they make little to no money. They are nervous that lawmakers are creating legislation based on a few questionable businesses and doctors that are purely profit-driven.

“You’ve got these big business owners who are trying to change the rules and the smaller guys are crying foul,” says Terri Lynn, owner of the marijuana delivery service Natural Alternatives for Health. “The whole while patients are saying, ‘What about me?’”

As former commander of the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force, Schiager sees some unnerving parallels between legal and illegal marijuana. Since MMDs began opening en masse, at least six home-growers have been robbed, some at gunpoint.

And the criminal element extends beyond violence. Because the definition of severe pain is vague, numerous Web sites have appeared, giving tips on what symptoms to claim and which doctors are more likely to “rubber-stamp” a recommendation.

Although the registry is approaching a six-month backlog – the office receives over 1,000 applications a day – in September 2009, there were 800 doctors in Colorado who had recommended marijuana to patients. Because marijuana is a plant, it is not an FDA-approved prescription drug or covered by healthcare providers like Anthem and the CSU Health Network. Doctors who have been stripped of their ability to write prescriptions – a federally regulated license – can still sign a marijuana card.

“To curb recreational use, what they need to do is go upstream to the doctors,” Lynn believes. Because she grows in her home, she uses a different last name to protect herself and her patients’ privacy. “I think it’s a nightmare for real patients. There are a lot of unintended consequences that council members are regulating. It’s very fear-based and focused on recreational use.”

A Growing (Student) Problem

As a college town, Fort Collins is enticing. Roughly half of all current MMDs are within 2 miles of CSU, a fact the city hasn’t overlooked.

“I think having a university here makes for a really tempting market, and maybe a market that is tempted,” says Ginny Sawyer, an administrator with Fort Collins neighborhood services. She mentions that aside from using, students are growing in homes with little to no security. “Probably this next renting cycle, you will see some very spelled-out clauses saying ‘no growing on-site.’”

Kris Ticnor, owner of the property agency My House, has seen this problem first hand.  When she went to inspect the home of two long-time tenants, she discovered 100 marijuana plants. The residents, also CSU students, had gone through all the steps to register themselves as a private MMD, but they overlooked Ticnor – neither the city nor the tenants notified her when the tax license was approved.

“Their position was, ‘No one comes to our door, we deliver it,’” Ticnor says, stressing that the two lived next to an elderly man. “My position is all it takes is one person, who is high on something else, and all of a sudden cops are all over and I’ve broken my promise to those neighbors.”

Instead of pressing charges or evicting the tenants, she allowed them to stay if they paid for the mold damage caused by the plants. Although she is not against medical marijuana, she sees the situation as one way it can be abused.

“There are certain community organizations that will grab onto this issue as a student issue, not a pot issue,” Ticnor says. “It will become a bad tagline for students.”

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

Sawyer and Schiager were part of a city committee that wrote a new ordinance to regulate MMDs. They held focus groups with patients, business owners and other community members, a process Ticnor believes was a token gesture and similar to the contested 3-unrelated ordinance.

The resulting law, passed on March 16, mapped out defined areas around the city where MMDs can be located. A major concern for the committee was keeping large-scale grows like the one Ticnor found out of residential areas. After July 14, all cultivators and MMDs operating in homes will be illegal – including Lynn’s.

“People already growing illegally will stay that way,” she says. “There’s no need for an ordinance to control them. You’re going to have folks like me who were legal, who will either have to go out of business or move out of the city in order to sustain the model.”

Schiager realizes this will shut down many already-established businesses, but the regulations are meant to protect communities and define what he calls “crazy, contradictory laws.”

On the other side, business owners and activists are fighting decades of pot prejudice. While the ordinance was being written, Gordon and Cutbirth arranged a tour of several local dispensaries to showcase their business model and prove that marijuana can be a viable medicine.

“Initially, there was a lot of apprehension and fear on all sides,” Gordon says. “Now, it’s like, ‘Wow, there is a legitimate need [for MMDs]. We’ve seen how it works and it’s not that bad.’”

The committee was immediately impressed; Schiager often deferred to Gordon and Cutbirth with questions about the ordinance. Despite this relationship, Medicinal Gardens is one of 30 MMDs that could be forced to move or close their doors. The new zoning and spacing requirements could effectively regulate them out of business, something that frustrates Gordon.

“It’s 2010 – 10 years after laws could’ve been implemented and put into effect,” Gordon says. “They are dragging their feet.”

Colorado’s Pot Predicament

Don is a 29-year-old CSU freshman history major and former Marine who tore his rotator cuff while stationed in Washington D.C. After several years, his shoulder never healed and military doctors kept prescribing painkillers “like candy.” By the summer of 2009, he was taking up to four 800-milligram pills at a time, as often as four times a day. He got his registry card in December after developing stomach ulcers from the dosage.

“I’m not doing it to get wasted and stoned,” Don says. “I eventually decided that relief from the pain was worth it. It is something I can afford to do without being screwed up from all the pills.”

Don chose to remain anonymous because his relief comes at a risk: While possession is still a federal crime, he could lose the Veterans Affairs benefits that pay for his tuition.

Don’s unease shows the fickle relationship between state and federal law. Despite a 2009 presidential directive, there is still concern and confusion about personal rights. Marijuana is considered a Schedule I narcotic, on par with ecstasy and mescaline.

“Federal government – the Obama administration – has said they don’t care about medical marijuana,” says Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado, a Denver-based marijuana advocacy group. “But the [Drug Enforcement Administration] didn’t get the memo. We have a branch of the government that is acting in a rogue manner and harassing patients and providers.”

In March, Sensible Colorado teamed with Americans for Safe Access, a national lobbying organization, to train Fort Collins community members and MMD employees on how to react to DEA raids.

“We thought it was important to educate people on how to deal with DEA intervention in Colorado,” Vicente says. “We wanted to send a message to the federal government saying we don’t want any intervention in state laws.”

Spurred by this federal bullying, lawmakers from both parties have created a laundry list of legal marijuana legislation.

State Rep. Tom Massey, a Republican, has sponsored a recent bill that would address what he calls the “loopholes” in Colorado law that allow for MMDs. Dubbed the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code, it would to create the State Licensing Authority for marijuana to track all MMDs, similar to the patient registry.

Another bill, introduced in the Senate, would redefine the physician/patient relationship, requiring doctors to perform a full physical and keep separate records of all patients they recommend for marijuana. It would also prevent doctors from having any connection with MMDs.

With state legislation still up in the air indefinitely – after a major overhaul in the House, the patient/physician bill failed the Senate on March 26 and was sent back to committee – there is a sense of exasperation in Fort Collins.

When asked if he ever imagined himself on a legal marijuana committee, Schiager chuckles.

“I hope this doesn’t turn into a five-year project,” he sighs. “This was never an issue I was looking for to define my career.”

But MMD owners and city officials, including Sawyer, feel that the people at the heart of the legislation – the patients – may have been lost in the process.

“They were able to find caregivers and it made their lives functional,” Sawyer says, recalling the story of a 60-year-old woman who suffered for years with multiple sclerosis until she discovered marijuana. “That is who I would hate to see put at risk by such strong regulations.”

The activist in Gordon remains hopeful that the city won’t force any current MMDs to move. A decision on whether to grandfather the 30 violating businesses under the ordinance will not be made until September. But he is still afraid bureaucracy could stall or even destroy a good thing.

“My biggest fear – myself as a patient and an activist – is I don’t want my patients deferring to street drugs,” Gordon says. “I will fight tooth and flippin’ nail to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

But it is clear that the pain of her battles with food are still very recent, as she almost whispers her story about how her binge eating disorder came close to destroying her life.

Society doesn’t usually consider those who like to eat to have an addiction and to be struggling day to day with something as overpowering as alcohol or drugs. Addiction as defined by The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a “chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking.”

According to Ashley, people can be addicted to food in this way just as easily as they can be addicted to any other substance or vice.

What sets food apart from most addictions is that it cannot be cut out of one’s life, making it one of the hardest addictions to overcome, especially in a country that revolves around food. Americans eat at sporting events, in business meetings and even at church, as well as in an abundance of other social settings – food is impossible to escape.

Ashley, who graduated from Colorado State University in December with a bachelor’s degree in food science and human nutrition, began binging and purging at the age of 10 following her parent’s divorce. She reflected on this as a way of coping with the things she didn’t know how to talk about.

Filling herself as quickly as possible, mostly with bread and peanut butter until it hurt, was her way of feeling something other than the emotional pain she was dealing with.

“That was the only thing I knew to do, to try and feel something else,” Ashley said.

Her addiction led her to steal food from the grocery store and sneak into the kitchen at night to binge privately, which was always followed by purging. Purging, as defined by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is the act of vomiting or using laxatives after binging.

Age 16 to 18 was the worst time for Ashley, when she would purge about six times a day. But it was not until she went away to college that the habit began to control her life in unimaginable ways.

“I had no friends for two years,” said Ashley, who chose to remain anonymous because of many social and school pressures. “I had to schedule my classes so I would have at least an hour break so I could go home and purge. You just can’t have a friend if you truly have a big eating disorder because all you think about is food.”

Chris Bachman, a registered dietitian with the CSU Health Network, said binge eating could be the body’s physical response to being too low in calories, a common reaction to traditional American dieting. Although more often, as in Ashley’s case, it is caused by deep-rooted emotional problems.

“Binging is a coping tool,” Bachman said. “People use food to deal with emotions of one kind or another and often times binging makes people feel calmer.”

“A lot of people will say they had a hole in them that could only be filled by food,” said Jane, about the emotional aspect of eating.

Jane is a member of Overeaters Anonymous in Fort Collins, a support group for people with eating disorders which follows the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous. Jane chose to remain anonymous in order to protect the integrity of the group, its members and herself.

Jane, who has been in OA for three years, realized she had a problem after watching a movie about an alcoholic whom she was able to relate with.

“I had behaved like the alcoholic had done with alcohol, but with food,” she explained.

Jane recalled how she ate in reaction to any and every emotion in order to dampen her feelings. She also believes that she is physically addicted to sugary foods because they spark a reaction of binging that only stops when she has run out of food or is violently ill from overeating.

“My last sugar binge was after I’d been in the [OA] program for a whole year,” she said. “I went to a dessert party and told myself I was going to have one plate. I ended up having two or three plates and then I got home and kept eating. The only way I didn’t eat everything I had was because I gave the rest of it to my dog because she’s the only one who can eat as fast as me. I eat until I’m sick, that’s not emotional anymore.”

While Jane doesn’t believe she can ever touch sugary foods without this reaction, Ashley views the addictive properties of her disorder differently. Instead, Ashley sees her eating addiction as a weakness that showed she was unhappy. Once she established what made her happy, the addiction subsided.

Even so, both Ashley and Jane see their disorders not only as an addiction, but as a disease that has taken control of their lives. According to Jane, there is no graduation from OA, even when it appears that someone has mastered his or her problem, because the disease doesn’t go away.

“It takes over your mind,” Ashley said. “You lose control of any rational thought. You lose control of your body.”

According to Bachman, binge eating is hard to overcome because of the embarrassment, guilt and secrecy behind it. There are two types of eating, public and private, she added. In public, binge eaters tend to eat less and eat healthier, which in turn drives private eating that tends to be out of control.

In high school, Ashley kept her disorder private, hardly ever eating with friends unless they were also overweight. Because of this, no one ever knew about Ashley’s problem until her second year of college when she was literally at a breaking point and went to get help in despair.

“In public I would think about snacking,” Ashley said. “I would eat with the family and then go upstairs and purge. I was always waiting for when I could go and eat more.”

Societal pressures make it particularly difficult for people to cope with eating disorders Bachman said, who blames “mindless eating” – pairing eating with other things such as sports events, driving or doing homework – and an absence of set meal times as contributors to poor relationships with food.

Ashley stated that activities as simple as going to a friend’s house and eating dinner can be difficult to those recovering from a food addiction.

“That’s been a big realization with all of the social attachments of food,” Ashley said.

The NIDDK Web site states that binge eating affects 3 percent of adults in the United States, and in particular women are affected more than men – three women to every two men.

Society’s expectations for women about eating made it incredibly difficult for Ashley, especially as a dietetics major who was overweight. The majority of women studying nutrition are fit and healthy, Ashley explained, who said she has felt judged by others.

The intensity of her condition had also alienated her from others, which meant part of her recovery was relearning social interactions to make friends.

“I hadn’t been to a movie in years – I was scared,” she said.

Help comes in different forms for each individual because, as Bachman put it, binge eating is a “private war.” Ashley sought help from the CSU Health Network in the form of counselors and a dietitian, and considers herself recovered.

Like any addiction, she had to unlearn her unhealthy habits, which is a slow and difficult process, but from the progress Ashley has made, it is completely worth it.

In contrast, Jane has found the structure she needs to control her disorder through OA, but in her eyes she will never be cured. Abstaining from eating during certain parts of the day and sticking to a food plan are her method of control.

“We’re different from other addictions because we can’t get away from the habit – we have to eat,” Jane said.

Photo by Chelsea Dunfee

For many college students, “Facebooking” has become a verb. In March, Facebook passed Google.com to become the No. 1 most visited Web site in the United States, and according to Facebook, 18 to 24 year olds are the largest demographic to use the popular social networking site.

In an increasingly connected world, laptops, netbooks and smart phones have made it possible to access the Web from almost any location, and social networking sites allow individuals to communicate with the world at the click of a mouse.

But for some people, being connected 24 hours a day, seven days a week can be too much to handle.

Defining Addiction

According to a 2009 article published on CNN.com, individuals have started to seek professional psychological treatment for their obsessive use of Facebook. One woman was so consumed with spending time on the site that she had neglected both her work and her child.

From a medical standpoint, Internet addiction is not recognized as a legitimate diagnosis.

Some mental health professionals attempted to get the condition added to the fifth edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” The manual was last revised in 1994 and is set to be published in 2013. The proposal was shot down in February due to a lack of research.

Jeremy Sharp, a licensed psychologist in Fort Collins, said he has not seen any cases in his practice specifically for Facebook addiction; however, he has dealt with patients who had issues related to the social networking site.

“They say that they are having a lot of trouble forming relationships [and] maintaining relationships,” he said, which draws them to sites like Facebook in search of human interaction.

“We love being in relationships with people and feeling like we have close connections with other people,” Sharp said. “Facebook satisfies that in a superficial way.”

Whether someone can actually be addicted to Facebook – or the Internet in general – is debatable, but the rising popularity of the Web site cannot be denied.

The Appeal of Social Networking

Christie Calhoun, a CSU alumna, said Facebook is a fast and easy way to keep in contact with friends and family.

“I like using Facebook because I like being able to keep in touch with friends, particularly those who I’m not able to see regularly,” Calhoun said in an e-mail. “I also really love sharing pictures with my friends and family.”

According to Jamie Switzer, an associate professor of journalism specializing in computer-mediated communication, this is the main appeal of social networking sites for most users.

“I think what really draws people overall is the ability to stay in touch and to interact with other people,” she said. “It’s really just to keep that connection because it’s easy to do.”

Facebook has also become a procrastination tool among students, partially due to the rise of games and applications developed for the site.

“The fastest growing area in gaming technology is Facebook game applications,” said Lucy Troup, an associate professor of psychology who teaches a course on human-computer interaction.

According to App Data, an independent company that measures trends on Facebook, Farmville reached over 80 million users in early February.

Switzer said that people have become used to the constant ability to chat, play and interact, which may lead a person to feel the anxiety of missing something when they are not online.

“There is this constant stream of data and [you think] ‘oh my god, I don’t want to miss a thing,’” she said. “There is a sense of missing out on what everybody else is doing.”

Sharp agreed.

“There’s always a chance that something exciting is going to happen on Facebook,” he said. “It taps into … our need for stimulation.”

But the constant flow of information, as well as the hyper-connected feel of the site, is exactly what made Bryan Nicholas log off of Facebook for good.

The senior landscape architecture major deleted his account during his sophomore year of college because he “didn’t see the benefit of it.”

“It kind of seems awkward that you have that much insight on people’s daily lives,” he said. “I thought that if they were truly my friends and truly people I want to spend time with, then Facebook didn’t really seem necessary in the first place. I’d rather spend 20 minutes talking to [friends] over the phone or meeting with them.”

When Sharing Becomes Over-Sharing

Facebook allows users to spread information quickly and with ease. From profile information to status updates and photo albums, people are sharing quite a bit about themselves with their online activity, perhaps more than they would in real life.

According to Sharp, a person’s inclination to share, or sometimes over-share, on Facebook comes from a sense of anonymity granted by online communication.

“I think online sharing gives us a level of anonymity that is attractive, especially for more introverted individuals,” he said. “A lot of people feel more comfortable writing than talking.”

Switzer agreed, explaining that the feeling of anonymity online is not necessarily associated with people being unaware of who you are.

“People are less inhibited because no one can see them,” she said. “Even though it’s [my] Facebook page and everyone can see my picture, there is that extra layer of detachment.”

Calhoun thinks that people’s willingness to divulge information is simply because they can.

“Our generation spends so much time in front of the computer,” Calhoun said. “I guess I never really [thought] that it would be weird to post things about myself for my friends and family to see.”

Photo by Chelsea Dunfee

When Connecting Becomes Creeping

But with the act of sharing information comes the possibility that people will actually look at it. The term “Facebook stalking” has become commonplace, an act that is often joked about and to some extent seen as normal.

“I think there is a certain amount of the human condition that makes us nosy about other people and see what’s going on and know what other people are doing,” Troup said.

And Switzer, she said this is what leads us to engage in such a behavior. “Looking up college boyfriends or that girl you couldn’t stand in high school, there is that voyeuristic secret satisfaction,” Switzer said. “[Facebook] just makes it a little easier [to find information].”

Nicholas said that the general lack of privacy that came along with people viewing his information was what he disliked about having a Facebook profile.

“It’s just like watching a soap opera or a reality TV show,” Nicholas added. “It’s kind of the same mentality. You are viewing somebody’s life and it becomes a form of entertainment.”

Some users rely on privacy settings to keep their profile out of public view, but that becomes irrelevant when someone allows more than 100 “friends” to access their information — according to Facebook, the average user has 130.

“I have 558 friends [on Facebook], a lot of whom are people I’ve gone to high school with, and people I’ve met through classes at CSU and through work,” Calhoun said.

She added she tries to be cautious about what she posts online, but said that others may not do the same.

“I have two younger sisters, and sometimes I get concerned that they don’t fully understand the possible repercussions of using any kind of social networking sites if they are not careful with how they present themselves,” she said.

When Over-Use Becomes a Problem

Calhoun is a frequent Facebook user. She said she checks her account about six to 10 times a day and gets alerts pushed to her smart phone.

“I do think my smart phone influences how much I check [Facebook], particularly since it’s so easy to access,” she said. “I can pick up 3G almost anywhere I am, so if I’m bored on my lunch break or have a few minutes, I’ll usually hop on and see what’s new.”

But what separates the avid user from the obsessed user?

According to Troup, a person’s use of social networking sites becomes problematic when it interferes with real life.

“There are certainly people who don’t have a good balance in how much they interact with technology in their everyday lives,” she said. “If it’s interfering with your normal life, if you’re not going out and taking a stroll, or you’re not doing your college work because you’re on Facebook too much, then it’s a problem.”

Calhoun, on the other hand, said “I don’t think I’d wither up without it,” if she was forced to live without Facebook.

Switzer emphasized that communication tools like Facebook should be used to add to your social life, rather than replace it.

“I’m a firm believer in technology and I’m also a firm believer in human connections,” Switzer said. “If that’s the only way you can maintain those connections, like your sister is studying abroad in Spain, then yeah, have a virtual cup of coffee together.”

It’s Not the End of the World

While it may be a real problem for some, Switzer said that the rise in popularity of social networking sites is not the end of the world, but rather a shift in technology trends.

“We need to be wary of thinking of [these things] as the end of civilization as we know it. It’s just the newest technology at the time [that people can use] in a dysfunctional fashion,” she said. “It’s how you use the tool.”

Troup agreed, and said that like it or not, these technologies will continue to be a part of life.

“I think rather than fight it, we need to embrace, understand and use it,” she said. “I think [technology] has a place in our world. I don’t think we should be [extreme] about it and say we should smash computers because it’s changing the world.”

Switzer said that social networking sites will continue to be around in some form for a long time, mainly because younger generations have grown up “connected” through technology. As for it being positive or negative, it’s all about the user’s choices.

“It’s made a fundamental shift in change in how people relate to each other,” she said. “It’s not good, it’s not bad. It’s how you use it.”

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

Hesitating at the top of the hill on Bingham Hill Road, my legs begin to twitch. The road is open and nearly empty, waiting for me. I plummet down the pavement hill with a graceful jolt of energy. Pedaling faster, my legs start to burn as the wind rushes past – taunting me to go faster – and the only sound I hear is the tires humming on the road.

Nearing the bottom, I lift myself off the seat and lean over the handlebars, tightening my grip in preparation to push past the car ahead of me. And as I pass, not only are their faces shocked to see me on my bike passing them, but they also realize I have no brakes as I take a hard right and lock my legs, skidding to a stop.

I am an adrenaline junkie and I have just fed my fix.

I ride a fixed-gear bike or “fixie,” which means that my bike pedals do not stop moving; there is only one gear and no brakes. So how do I stop? I can either resist the pedals or lock my legs to skid to a halt.

Some people may think that riding a bicycle at 20 MPH or more without brakes is crazy, but to me, it’s just the most entertaining and exhilarating way to get around.

I was an avid long boarder in high school, and when I moved here to attend Colorado State University, I needed something that could take me farther than a long board. A bike was the perfect answer. I needed something light, cheap and fast. My roommate was the first to introduce me to fixies, and after learning the basics, I was off.

While I don’t currently BASE jump or sky dive, I do consider myself an adrenaline junkie and, no, I don’t take offense to the term. For me, the adrenaline rush is only one of the appealing aspects of participating in extreme sports.

What I want to know is: can adrenaline be an addiction? What’s out there that gives different people that same rush? Or is there just the adrenaline junkie type who is always looking for the next rush?

There are a lot of sports that are now considered “extreme” – rock climbing, white water rafting, fixed-gear riding, snowboarding and long boarding to name a few. Basically, extreme sports are considered by many to have higher levels of risk and more physical demands.

Steve Ross, a licensed clinical and sports psychologist with the CSU Health Network, says there is not an actual diagnosis of adrenaline addiction in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” Fourth Edition. But, he adds, there does seem to be an addictive component to extreme and high-risk sports.

“Many of the athletes who participate in extreme sports do so through rigorous training that allows them to constantly increase their skill levels to match the increasing demand,” Ross says. “Therefore, virtually any sport could trigger the production of adrenaline.”

According to the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah, adrenaline – also known as epinephrine – is usually equated with the “fight or flight” instinct in humans. Adrenaline is a reaction to an extreme situation and is the body preparing for that situation.

Once this starts, the adrenaline sends a message to the body including the heart and lungs, opening the airways and blood vessels to create a boost of energy in specific ways for different parts of the body.

“I’m still trying to figure out if I enjoy that adrenaline,” says Kyla Novak, a junior graphic design and art education major, about the adrenaline she gets from rock climbing and fixed-gear riding. “I know my limits and when to take a risk and when to stay in the shadows.”

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

And with no hesitation, Novak agrees with me that, yes, adrenaline is addicting. But, she adds, “It comes and goes like the weather does – when the weather is brutal outside I’ll still ride.”

As I have come to religiously believe, adrenaline is something that comes along with many forms of sports, including one of Novak’s favorites: city riding.

Novak has been fixed-gear riding in Denver before and would like to ride in other cities, not just for the thrill, but also because it holds a great challenge – crowded streets with heavy traffic, narrow spaces and one-way streets.

“Adrenaline is very thrilling,” Novak says. “It’s safe, but it’s risky.”

But extreme sports are not for everyone, and although I can get my fix from them, others choose to push themselves in sports for the challenge it offers.

“I’m not an extreme athlete. I’m not going to go ski off a cliff or something,” Jane Welzel says. “For different people, different sports give them that rush. From my experiences, the really extreme stuff is too scary for me. I don’t want that, I don’t need that to get the high, I just need something that challenges me.”

For some, like Welzel, adrenaline can be more properly classified as the thrill of the unknown.

And, as she nears 55 years old, she explains that “there is always something [out there] to test yourself.”

Even though extreme sports are typically more risky and physically demanding, the release of adrenaline, or the “rush,” does not require danger, as Ross explains.

Welzel says she does not participate in sports that put her into survival mode because where she is at is “a good place.” And there’s no doubt about that because she has been running for over 35 years and has competed at one of the highest levels of competition – the Olympics – which she qualified for five times.

She has been actively involved in sports throughout her life, which began with swimming, water polo and cross-country in college. She began running to stay in shape for swimming, but instead of pursuing swimming, she took up running. And adrenaline, for her, is not directly related to the danger of her sport.

“There’s that similarity in pushing the edges and not knowing what’s possible,” Welzel says on how she gets her adrenaline fix.

In my experience, the adrenaline in sports can be an addiction. Although it isn’t just for the pure rush, it is more of an addiction to something I love to do – play sports and be active.

I’ve played almost every sport there is starting in kindergarten, and for now, riding my fixie cannot be replaced by anything. I have spent countless hours riding, tinkering and enjoying everything that comes along with it. So much so that I’ve gotten most of my friends into riding fixies because of how fun and cheap this is. And it isn’t hard to coax them – all I have to do is say, “Hey, try this out” – and they’re hooked.

I was never really attracted to the dangerous side of riding a fixie, except that danger does give me that fix, that adrenaline rush that other sports cannot match.

“Adrenaline is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands when the body is under stress,” Ross explains. “When this is paired with participating in an extreme sport, the adrenaline is useful, as it is expended during the activity. Concurrently, there is often an endorphin release during extreme sports. Endorphins are generally responsible for a feeling of well being and their opioid effect can short circuit the pain response.”

Rob Breckenridge, a CSU alumnus and owner of A-1 Wildwater Rafting, has been on the Cache la Poudre River for over 30 years and acknowledges that white water rafting has the potential to be dangerous.

“[Its] definitely part of why people come – [there is] a great adrenaline rush when you go down the river,” Breckenridge says.

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

When Breckenridge came to Fort Collins, he went out on the Poudre River and started an experiential learning program for rock climbing, white water rafting and other outdoor activities. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in natural resources management in 1978, and after teaching high school biology, he returned to CSU for graduate school; however, he quickly realized that since “no one was doing much on the Poudre River,” that he should – so he started A-1 Wildwater Rafting.

Last year, Breckenridge couldn’t go white water rafting due to a hip injury, but he plans on returning to the rapids this season. He does more safety boating, which is following the rafts in a kayak and helping people that fall out get back to shore.

Safety is a big concern in extreme sports because they are riskier than traditional sports. And I try to be as safe as I can be – despite the fact that I’m weaving in and out of traffic – and surrounded by over 3,000 pounds of metal.

Fixed-gear biking is just one of many extreme (and not so extreme) sports that can entice me and other adrenaline junkies into chasing the rush. I’m OK being classified as an adrenaline junkie and will always be looking for the next rush — even if that means I’m “addicted to adrenaline” — I guess I’ll just have to enjoy the ride.

garrett mynatt is an adrenaline junkie who can be seen pedaling around fort collins on his blue-wheeled fixie. Comments and questions can be sent to csumag@lamar.colostate.edu

The changes were made after many dispensary owners expressed concern that they were being made illegal by regulations. The original ordinance, passed on March 16, allowed for over 850 acres of land citywide for dispensaries and around 1,500 acres for cultivation sites. The proposed zoning changes will add an additional 544 acres for cultivation outside of industrial zones.

“Even in the public comments, people seemed pretty agreeable,” said Ginny Sawyer, an administrator with Fort Collins Neighborhood Services, noting that dispensary owners and other community members were in attendance at the meeting. “It’s hard to tell who is representing who, but overall, I think people were positive.”

According to Sawyer, the decision to up the amount of marijuana that can be bought in a seven day period was based on feedback from dispensary owners. The change only applies to licensed dispensaries who handle multiple patients, not individuals or single primary caregivers.

“I think those are arbitrary amounts and I didn’t hear any compelling argument that 4 oz. was needed to protect patient’s rights under Amendment 20,” said councilmember Wade Troxell, who voted against the change.

Amendment 20, passed in 2000, is the Colorado law that allows for medicinal use of marijuana by state-licensed patients. It makes no mention of dispensaries or commercial cultivation.

Presently, only six of 36 total commercial dispensaries are legal under the March 16 ordinance. Most of the new property under the proposed grow site changes will be north of Mulberry Street along College Avenue. There is only one dispensary that currently operates in that area.

The changes will allow for dispensaries to grow on-site, addressing complaints that the ordinance set aside a disproportionately  small amount of land, most of which is controlled by property owners who do not want cultivators in their buildings. All on-site growing must have separate ventilation and security, and patients will not be allowed access at any time.

“From my perspective, there wasn’t enough evidence put forward that the industrial zoning needed to be expanded,” Troxell said. “For example, under the original ordinance, you had one square mile of industrial land available for cultivators. If that’s not enough for patients and caregivers, I don’t know what is.”

Troxell, who played an important role in passing the original ordinance, was the single dissenting vote on both measures. After revision, the changes will be sent to council on May 4 for a second reading before being made final.

“I’m leery of any expansion attempts because I think the ordinance that was put into place was well-crafted and thought through,” Troxell said. “When you start to incrementally change, you allow for a lot of uninteded consequences.”

The April 20 decision was the first in a long string of future challenges to the ordinance. After the second reading and expected final approval on May 4, current businesses will have until June 30 to reapply for a medical marijuana license.

By July 14, all dispensaries and growers in residential areas will have to shut down and remove their inventory, one of the major goals of the original ordinance.

In September, the council will meet to decide whether the 36 current commercial businesses can stay at their present location. Until then, the city will not grant tax or marijuana licenses to new businesses.

Photo Illustration by Stephanie Scott

 Jill is a bit of an Internet junkie. She has multiple postings in online classifieds, a personal Web site and several profiles that describe her qualities – she says friends tend to call her “cheerful, bright, warm, illuminating and powerful” – as well as her weight, height, measurements and when she is available for incalls and outcalls.

Other information, such as Jill’s real name, telephone number, home address and employer remain carefully guarded to protect her from law enforcement. Jill is an Adult Service Provider (ASP), the industry-preferred name for a prostitute.

“There are two reasons you can’t tell people [you are a prostitute],” she says. “One is the legal aspect, self-preservation. The other is that people, especially older people, can not fathom that you could have a total stranger come to you and be safe.”

Outside of her virtual life, Jill is the same person she presents for strangers as an ASP. Unlike many providers, who hide any distinguishing marks such as tattoos and even their faces online, Jill has never posted a picture that wasn’t absolutely real.

“I don’t believe in misrepresenting myself,” she says, noting that all pictures on her Web site are current as of this past May. “I want someone to come and say I am more attractive than in my picture.”

Jill is a Colorado State University graduate who came to Northern Colorado as a student and never left. She enjoys the Fort Collins community, especially the music scene and jam bands, and describes herself as a “spiritual, loving person.” She closely follows the debate over medical marijuana and is a firm believer in “all or nothing” when it comes to the regulation of controlled substances. Above all, she says, Fort Collins is her home.

Jill has been operating in northern Colorado for nearly 20 years. Her roommate was the first person to suggest she become a prostitute.

“She told me, ‘You get along with the bros and the cowboys and everyone. You should be an escort,’” Jill says, mentioning that only a few close friends today know about her chosen profession.

Along with being a prostitute – her primary source of income – she also has a professional job in Fort Collins as a self-described “healer.” Despite her efforts at transparency on the Internet and with friends, she admits her job would be in jeopardy if someone discovered she was a prostitute. She asked that both her real name and provider name be changed. The issue of anonymity and safety, as with everything she does, is still her primary concern.

“I think these things – drugs, sex, anything – are going to happen no matter what,” Jill explains. She believes the majority of victimless crimes should be made legal, noting that when illegal, they often do more to destroy lives than if they were accepted. She doesn’t, however, see this as a fatalist mentality and is proud of what she does. After spending nearly half her life as a prostitute, it has influenced her worldview.

“I think our society is a very fearful society,” she says. “Our concept of monogamy has turned a society of people who don’t want to be liars and cheaters into liars and cheaters.”

Prostitution in Fort Collins and Northern Colorado is a relatively quiet business. A common misconception about prostitutes is that they are women who find business casually, walking the street and waiting for clients to come to them. This assumption is far from true. Modern prostitution is often highly organized and anonymous; when faced with criminal charges – a rare occurrence – most women will never talk. Like Jill, they are careful and leave very little solid evidence of their activity.

“We just don’t have the manpower to pursue it as heavily as other agencies with a vice unit,” says Jonathon Cox, an investigator with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department.

Since most prostitutes do not operate in the open, they are able to maintain a low profile and ensure a discreet experience for their clients. Discretion, along with safety, is the No. 1 concern for both escorts and “Johns” – the term used by law enforcement to identify a man who solicits prostitution, according to Cox.

“People think [prostitution is] full of perverts and that’s not totally true,” Jill says. “It’s a whole different thing here in northern Colorado. We’re more down-to-earth and it’s less competitive than Denver.”

Cox admits it has been a long time since he worked a prostitution case. In his 17 years with the department, he can only remember a few specific instances of “popping” someone for soliciting sex. It is difficult to prosecute and convict a suspect because they must either confess or be caught in the act, which contributes to the hidden, almost non-existent nature of sex-for-hire.

“We have very little prostitution activities in Fort Collins and northern Colorado,” states Rita Davis, a spokeswoman for Fort Collins Police Services. Because different agencies deal with the problem individually, she admits that she may not be aware of every case.

According to state and federal law, a prostitute is any person, male or female, who receives payment to have sex with another person who is not their spouse. The most basic level of prostitution, soliciting sex is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of six months in prison and fines up to $750.

“There is no one agency that says they will be the lead point on prostitution,” Cox says. Because the punishment is minimal, the sheriff’s department rarely runs extensive undercover operations, and unless a person has been previously convicted, there is no database of people suspected of soliciting sex. Even after conviction, no specific data is kept on prostitution.

“We just don’t keep those kinds of statistics and don’t categorize by what type of crime was committed,” says Linda Jensen, the public information officer for the Larimer County District Attorney’s office.

“[The punishment is] generally fines,” Cox adds. “Fines and embarrassment, especially if they are married.”

With the exception of Nevada, prostitution in the United States operates illegally in various forms. The type most commonly targeted by law enforcement on a proactive basis involves organized rings, where multiple managers and prostitutes work collectively. In order to maintain a low profile, these operations often use a legal adult entertainment business as a cover. This can include massage parlors and escort services.

In 2009, Denver was the site of two prostitution busts, one in February and one in October. Altogether, over two dozen people were arrested in Denver and roughly 100 child prostitutes were rescued around the country, according to online reports by the Associated Press and 9News.

The busts were part of a nationwide initiative known as Operation Cross Country, spearheaded by the FBI and carried out with the help of local agencies. The raids targeted two massage parlors in Denver and resulted in the arrests of a wide variety of people – women and men, ranging from 18 to 48 years old – linked to child prostitution and human trafficking. No children were found in either raid on the Denver establishments.

“The police and the FBI have their eye on all these massage parlors,” Pam Harvey says. “There is the possibility that they could bring five or six down at a time.”

Harvey is the Colorado director of the Not For Sale Campaign, which is an international organization dedicated to identifying and assisting victims of human rights violations. She says human trafficking and prostitution do not always go hand in hand, but they can operate in similar ways. In general, Harvey explains that trafficking rings stay away from prostitution for one reason: trafficking is incredibly profitable – more so than drugs – as well as dangerous, and most people involved simply don’t need the additional money or attention that comes with prostitution.

For many women, especially those who are younger, the root of prostitution goes beyond money. From personal experience, Jill finds that the majority of women who become trapped in potentially dangerous situations are those who were sexually assaulted or abused as children. She enjoys her work and calls it a “viable profession,” something she largely credits to a good upbringing.

“I came from a healthy family with lots of love and wasn’t abused,” Jill says. Over the years, there were times when she found herself surrounded by drugs and other activities that overshadowed what she enjoyed about being a provider – the chance to connect with people and “open a whole new world” sexually – and knew she had to leave it behind.

“If you stay away from felony drugs or ripping people off and work with integrity, you’re OK,” she adds. “There are many people out there who involve their women in drugs.”

Jill is willing to be open about what she does because she has never been married and has no children. While she does not follow the same practices as other prostitutes to protect her identity, something that can make her legally vulnerable, she is safe and cautious with clients. She requires recommendations from at least one other established provider before arranging a meeting, typically someone she has networked with or knows personally. For outcalls – a meeting at a client’s home – she has a more strict set of criteria, but for safety reasons, she chose not to describe them. She advertises as “newbie friendly,” and incalls are open to anyone but held at a place she selects. The choice to work alone is another important security measure.

“Escort services are prostitution in a more legitimate verbiage,” says Sgt. Russ Reed with FCPS. Reed is head of the Crimes Against Persons division, which among other things, is in charge of investigating and arresting those involved with prostitution. Because concrete evidence is difficult to secure, if law enforcement suspects a business of being a front for prostitution, they can control it through logistic violations.

“That’s how a lot of jurisdictions get these places. They can’t pop them for prostitution, so they’ll get them through licensing,” Cox says. The police department has control over licensing and can easily stop illegal activity without solid charges of soliciting sex, but this only applies to businesses that operate in Fort Collins.

“I would say it’s everywhere,” Cox says. “The thing with escort services is that they can be based in Denver with a Denver phone number, but a guy in Fort Collins can still call looking for a party.”

Jill primarily meets with clients who live in northern Colorado. This is common for many providers, who have a general area they cover but don’t limit themselves to a specific city. There are no escort services based in Fort Collins, but many of the women who work for Colorado services travel throughout the state.

Sarah Pfauth is the sole owner and operator of the Denver-based business Elite Escorts. Changing the negative opinion people have about escort services was one of her goals when she started the company in August 2009.

“I have zero tolerance for prostitution,” Pfauth states. She works as a professional in two other jobs, but because of the possible backlash from her other employers, she chose not to name where she works. With the state of the economy, adding a third, private business seemed like a viable and profitable way to supplement her income.

Pfauth explains that she worked as an escort and exotic dancer seven years ago, and it is because of her experience in adult entertainment that she decided to try running a service of her own. During her time in the industry, she has seen many escort services earn the “unfortunate reputation” as fronts for prostitution.

“I’m trying to break the mold in a way,” she says. “I could see why [escort services] have that reputation because it happens. There is a brighter side as well and I want to help bring that out.”

Her employees are hired for a variety of services, such as high school reunions or dinner dates. Last October, one of her women was a golf caddie for a visiting businessman. Pfauth eventually wants to expand into football and corporate parties.

While working as an escort and dancer, Pfauth gained experience that is valuable when screening possible clients. She ensures reliable protection and a sense of security during appointments, adding that she would not hesitate to involve the police if she felt one of her employees was in danger. Pfauth understands when someone is calling for valid reasons or simply looking for sex.

“I can tell right away what they are all about because they will tell me,” she says, referring to a man who called her a bitch and made comments about lingerie. “People are pretty honest. I don’t want people to think that I am sending out a prostitute, someone to have sex with.”

For tax purposes, Pfauth’s employees are considered independent contractors who are required to sign a contract stating they will not have sex with clients. Because of the measures she takes to protect herself, her business and employees, Pfauth is not legally considered a “pimp” – a felony charge with penalties of up to 12 years in jail and $750,000. The severity of the consequences is one reason why Jill stays away from escort services and prefers to work independently.

Along with pimping, prostitution becomes a felony when it involves minors or knowledge of HIV infection. It is often at the felony level when prostitution attracts the immediate attention of authorities. Neither Cox nor Reed can remember such a case in Fort Collins.

The most recent bust of an organized prostitution ring in Fort Collins was in 2003. The Larimer County Sheriff’s Department raided a massage parlor on Link Lane, just north of Mulberry Street across from the gentlemen’s club, A Hunt Club. The business, Choice Tan, is one of two massage parlors in Fort Collins listed on the Web site eroticmp.com, advertised as “your No. 1 source for erotic massage and massage parlor reviews.” Choice Tan is currently open under the same name, a trend Cox calls “typical.”

“Once it’s raided, they will sell it to someone else and the person who got busted will move someplace else,” Cox says. He remembers the bust as being “low-key.”

“The Korean massage parlors are everywhere,” he adds. “It’s a huge business for them.”

Based on information Cox has gathered from talking to people involved, the women who work at many of the Korean-run businesses are illegal immigrants trying to pay off what he calls “shipping costs.” Once these costs are offset, they are typically free to go, making their situation slightly different than other human trafficking cases.

“Prostitution is the easiest and fastest way to pay off debt,” Cox says. “A lot of these women were doing it for a whole lot less back in Korea.”

Because of confidentiality, both Reed and Cox were unable to give exact details about how they approach and investigate organized prostitution. Reed says if there were any ongoing investigations, he wouldn’t be able to release information about the businesses or people involved.

However, based on past cases, Cox explains that most busts occur when a tip is received from surrounding businesses or concerned residents.

“If we have a complaint, we will stop the John on his way out and talk with them,” Cox says. “Most of them will admit to it.”

Independent escorts – what Cox calls the “lone” prostitute – work on their own and range from high-end providers with personal Web sites, such as Jill, to young women who advertise in online classifieds.

“Look on Craigslist or backpage.com and you tell me,” says Reed, in regards to online prostitution. He has seen the sites and is aware of the people on them, but as with other illicit sex activity in Fort Collins, they are not proactively followed.

“Especially in Northern Colorado and Wyoming, the men are looking for real women with real bodies,” Jill says. “They aren’t going for the fly-by-night, Craigslist-type girls.”

The Other Board is a Web site with reviews of prostitutes in Colorado and Texas. A disclaimer on the opening page states it is “solely for information and amusement” and is not related to prostitution. Other sites, including both Jill’s and Pfauth’s, have a similar disclaimer. On the front page of her site, Jill writes, “If money is exchanged then it is for time only. Time together may include services such as erotic dancing, modeling or a body rub.”

The legal validity of these claims, however, is questionable.

“If they’re trading sexual favors for money, that’s a criminal offense,” Reed says. “No matter what they’re putting in their ads, it’s still illegal.”

Jill says the disclaimer is primarily used to prevent people who do not belong on her site from unknowingly accessing the content.

“I know it wouldn’t help in a legal situation,” she says.

To disguise their activities further, the online prostitution business has its own veiled lingo, similar to other digital media. In message boards, John’s refer to themselves as enthusiasts or hobbyists and post open discussions with titles like: “Top 10 Hobbyist Pet Peeves” and “ASP v. Girlfriend – Pros and Cons.”

The Other Board also has a glossary of short-hand terms, like text language, to describe the services each prostitute provides: “Greek” is anal sex, “GFE” stands for girlfriend experience, “French” refers to oral sex. Although the language is carefully disguised and intentionally left ambiguous, the photos are typically graphic.

“When a young lady is posting pictures with their private parts exposed and saying they will charge $100 for a half hour of their services, a reasonable person would jump to the conclusion that it is prostitution,” Reed says.

Another advantage of the Internet is that it acts as an anonymous yet effective way to screen clients. Safety and discretion are often one in the same. Many prostitutes require clients to register with the Web site Preferred 411 before they will agree to a session. The site hosts profiles for clients and “legitimate providers.” Clients are required to purchase memberships for $69 a year. To confirm their identity, they must provide proof of employment; information the site operators say is immediately destroyed after confirmation. In exchange, they receive a discreet user name, full access to provider information and the ability to contact them directly through the site.

On Preferred 411, Jill has a list of over 17 activities she enjoys “in private,” all listed as discrete acronyms, followed by a disclaimer that reads, “For which no money is exchanged.”  Neither her profile nor Web site list options for payment. Rather, there are suggested donations for her services, ranging from $100 for fifteen minutes to $200 for a full hour.

The monetary benefits of prostitution are not easy to pin down. While prostitution can be profitable, the women who become successful and remain largely off the radar are not after cash.

“Never take a client because you are desperate or need money,” Jill says. “As with any profession, greed is the enemy.”

Pfauth, who started her business with the goal of making money, says her unique approach has been slow to evolve and catch on.

“Things aren’t looking good right now, but that’s because I’m not taking every call,” she says. “In time, at some point, it will be very lucrative. I’m taking baby steps.”

Reed is unsure of any noticeable economic impact brought about by prostitution and could not comment on how the public views the crime.

“I don’t have an opinion one way or the other,” he says.

Prostitution does remain largely unseen and, to an extent, controlled. The last case Cox can specifically remember of a John being charged for soliciting sex was in 2004. Because the overwhelming majority of people find what she does to be unthinkable, Jill has learned to adapt to Northern Colorado, like camouflage.

“I’m just a regular 40-something-year-old woman who wouldn’t stand out other than my large, all-American chest,” she laughs. Despite never being arrested or charged with prostitution, Jill is aware of the legal penalties for all aspects of the crime. Because she has been around longer than anyone else she is aware of, Jill is sure the police have some idea of whom she is. Being vocal about her life as a prostitute could damage the careful balance between what she enjoys and what is accepted.

“There is a reason and order that flows quite nicely without disruption,” Jill says. “Until I’m ready to get out of it, which I’m not, I think I need to remain not so vocal or proud about sharing my views. I’m not sure the human psyche is prepared for it.”

Photo Illustration by Tenae Allison

The birds chirp, the sun shines and everything seems right in the world when you’re in a good relationship. That mystical, cloud-nine feeling makes you feel wonderful and almost invincible, that is until infidelity worms its way into your perfect world – ruining what could have been and leaving you feeling destroyed.

That is what happened to Savannah Svoboda.

After two years in a serious relationship, Svoboda, a sophomore communications and political science major at Colorado State University, returned home from a vacation in Mexico to learn from an acquaintance that her boyfriend had cheated on her while she was gone.

“It was so bizarre because it was a really good relationship,” Svoboda explains. “I didn’t believe the person who told me because we weren’t good friends. I was in denial.”

She confronted her boyfriend about it, who tried to deny the rumor, but after a two-hour battle, he admitted it was true – he did cheat on her.

“His attitude just switched like that, so I knew something was wrong,” Svoboda says, referencing when she first confronted her boyfriend about the rumor.

With this infidelity, their seemingly great relationship of two years ended.

Today, it seems that infidelity is more common, especially with celebrities like Tiger Woods, Madonna and even former president Bill Clinton making headlines for cheating on their spouses. According to Elizabeth Harrison, licensed clinical social worker in Fort Collins, 30 to 50 percent of people have had an affair.

Furthermore, cheating can be very common in college, mainly because many people are not ready for a serious relationship, adds Rachel Isenberg, who is also a licensed clinical social worker in Fort Collins.

In Svoboda’s situation, infidelity stepped into a relationship out of nowhere, but the reasons for cheating vary from person to person.

Isenberg explains that many people feel unimportant or devalued in their relationship and are looking for something new without ending their current relationship, but they still need the current relationship to feel special, even if it’s not fulfilling their needs.

Fort Collins therapist Laura Garrett says others might use cheating to end their relationship purposefully or even as an easy way out to avoid commitment.

“This way the person doesn’t ever have to have the ‘it’s not working’ talk, and he or she can keep all emotions aside,” she adds.

Garrett says this form of a break-up can often create a pattern, where a relationship is more likely to end with cheating if that is how the two people got together in the first place.

So is the saying “once a cheater, always a cheater” true?

Isenberg says no, because people can always learn from their mistakes, understand what exactly they are looking for in life and never cheat again.

But when the door to infidelity has been opened once, it can be easier to open a second time, explains Harrison. The likeliness of a person to cheat on their partner depends on their current relationship values and expectations of what they want from that relationship. She continued on to say for many people, it’s a matter of knowing if they are mature enough to be in a loving relationship and see the long-term effects of their actions.

“Everyone has their own reason [for cheating],” Isenberg explains. “Often times it’s that they feel disconnected with the person they’re in a relationship with and they meet someone else that makes them feel special, which pulls them closer.”

Someone who has experienced this feeling is Brian A., a former CSU international studies major. Brian A. was in a long-distance relationship for five months when he cheated.

“Feeling disconnected [from] my girlfriend and not [having] my needs [satisfied] was the biggest thing,” Brian A. says. “My girlfriend had a lot going on and it was hard for her to show that emotional side.”

When his girlfriend found out he cheated, they decided to salvage their relationship, but only if he cut off all contact with the woman he cheated on his girlfriend with.

“There was a slight trust issue after the first month or so,” says Brian A., who remains anonymous out of respect for his current relationship and the person whom he cheated with. “I had to make that extra effort. It’s not so much of an issue now.”

He adds that he has learned a lot from this experience and is currently working to maintain a strong bond with his girlfriend, who he has now been dating for over seven months. He believes that he will not have any problems remaining faithful in the future.

After someone has been unfaithful in a relationship, Isenberg explains that rescuing a relationship requires both people to reconnect and decide what they’re looking for and to possibly change their expectations for the future. She adds that both people have to be physically and emotionally available.

“When a person is having an affair they are stuck in ‘tunnel vision,’ which means they cannot see the reality of what they’re doing,” Isenberg says. “The fantasy eventually shatters, leaving the problems of the old relationship unresolved.”

Garrett says the way to avoid infidelity is to make sure you’re not getting into a relationship to make yourself complete because, if this is the case, the relationship will never work. She explains the relationship results in one person looking elsewhere.

“I think the biggest component to relationships and their success is both people need to be whole, complete and healthy,” Garrett says. “You have to make yourself feel complete.”

With the fight for viewers’ attention growing more difficult in a highly saturated market, advertisers are searching for ways to stand out and win the battle for your attention. One prominent tactic is the use of sexual imagery.

But does sex sell?

According to Donna Rouner, a Colorado State University associate professor of journalism and technical communication, the success of advertising that uses sexual imagery often depends on the product being sold.

“Research has shown that people are pretty turned off by sex in ads if neither the product nor the lifestyle being portrayed [are relevant to] nudity or sex,” Rouner said. “Where sex works for people generally is when the product itself has to do with sex or intimacy or nudity.”

Kathleen Kelly, an associate professor of marketing at CSU and the director for the Center of Marketing and Social Issues, agreed with Rouner.

“It’s often around how [advertisements] can be sensual, because it fits with the type of product we’re promoting,” Kelly said. “You really have to look at whether it complements the product, makes sense for the product and [think about] how far to go.”

Junior accounting major Nick Lederhos said that advertisements for the clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch, which often feature models wearing little to no clothing, do not appeal to him.

“They go too overboard without focusing on the [clothes],” he said.

the buzz factor

Whether people love or hate a sexually explicit ad, Rouner said they’ll probably remember it, and possibly talk about it – or so advertisers hope.

“It creates buzz,” Rouner said. “That kind of effect is something that advertisers like. Even though it’s not selling [the product], it is making people pay attention to [the product]. Negative publicity is better than no publicity.”

However, while consumers may remember sexually explicit ads, they won’t necessarily remember the product.

“If you get really caught up in the sexuality of a commercial, you think ‘oh, that is effective because I’ve got them watching,’ but you often forget what’s being sold,” Kelly said.

But for high-end fashion labels like Dolce and Gabbana, a company who has become notorious for their sexually explicit print ads, the purpose may not be to sell a specific product, but the brand itself.

The company received criticism in particular for a 2007 ad that featured a woman being pinned to the ground by a man, while other men watched them – an image that many perceived to be a depiction of gang rape.

“It’s all about branding,” Rouner said. “You may never buy that product, but you will have that branded notion of Dolce and Gabbana as being on the edge, racy and sexual. In that sense, the advertising works in terms of attention and branded belief about that organization.”

targeting an audience

Although the success of sex in advertisements is sometimes questioned, Kelly said sexual imagery is used strategically. In fact, behind every 50-second television commercial, 8-by-11-inch print ad and 75-foot-long billboard, there are hours upon hours of consumer research and target audience analysis.

“The purpose of advertising is to get you to buy stuff,” added Elissa Braunstein, an associate professor of economics. “Consumption is at the root of the American economy. It’s the big driver of economic growth in the United States.”

According to Kelly, advertisers often conduct research to find niche groups to target as a means of breaking through the clutter of a heavily saturated market.

“[Advertisers] are constantly looking for a segment that isn’t already being [focused on],” she said. “What you see happening a lot now is that if a company is trying to target a young market, and particularly a young male market, they’re more likely to use sexuality or sex in advertising.”

Kelly cited Burger King as an example of this strategy. The prominent fast food company released multiple television and print ads in 2009 that played off of sexually suggestive themes.

“[Burger King was] competing with McDonalds head-to-head for so many years going after families and McDonalds wins that game hands down,” Kelly said. “With young males being the group that eat fast food the most, they positioned their promotion to target this group.”

While sex may have nothing to do with burgers, it might get the average young male’s attention.

“It’s easy to say ‘well that was a stupid ad,’” Kelly said. “[But] I’m not the target audience. I always have to remind myself of that.”

men vs. women

Research has shown that men react more positively to sexually explicit ads than women, a fact that Rouner attributes not to the display of nudity or sexual acts itself, but the implication that these images make about gender.

“Males tend to like nudity, sexuality and sexual explicitness across the board, but women tend not to like it because they are the ones who are the objects of the sex,” Rouner said.

A 2009 study in Journal of Consumer Research, suggested that women react more favorably to sexual imagery in ads if it is within the context of a committed relationship.

The study said this is likely due to the fact that men tend to have positive attitudes toward casual sex, while women tend to care more about relationships involving intimacy and commitment.

Rouner agreed, and said most ads with sexual imagery that we see today reflect men’s ideals rather than women’s.

“[Advertisements] are very male oriented, so they don’t show a lot of committed relationships,” Rouner said. “I don’t think women are objecting to the sexual act or the nudity. I think they are objecting to the oppression of it, the oppressive nature of it.”

Adriane Ciavonne, a senior journalism and technical communication major, agreed and said that ads objectifying women bother her.

“I think that men have never been on the other end,” she added. “They don’t really know what it’s like [to be objectified].”

defining the problem with sex in advertisements

Braunstein teaches Gender in the Economy a survey course, which focuses on different gender issues within the economic system, including the issue of sex in advertising.

She explained that sex in advertising becomes an issue when problematic images of women are used and that suggesting this tactic is justified simply because it works is a “cop-out.”

“[The saying] ‘Sex sells’ is too passive,” she said. “It’s missing the other side of the equation. It partly sells products because advertising uses it to sell products. They could use other kinds of images and be just as effective.”

Kelly said businesses are starting to become more aware of their responsibilities in regards to minimizing harm.

“Certainly businesses have improved a lot in recent years with regards to recognizing that they have a lot of responsibility and accountability to the public,” she said. “We’re doing a much better job of it. They have had to really get into this area of corporate social responsibility.”

But according to Rouner, a lot of changes still need to be made in how sexual images are used in advertising.

“It’s clear to me that really good ads can exist without sexualizing or sexually objectifying people,” Rouner said. “You can use sex in advertising in a beautiful way, just like art.