This past January, when we switched to a tabloid format from our traditional newspaper style, the editorial staff decided to experiment with a series of special issues throughout the semester. 

These issues would be centered on the interesting and important topics our campus community could benefit from reading about, topics that needed more explanation and analysis than just one or two stories could provide.

They took weeks of brainstorming, budgeting, planning, writing, editing, designing — all on top of our daily paper production. But whether tackling difficult topics like sexual assault or showing you Knoxville’s wackiest personas, all the work was worth it.

Now we present you with our final special issue: Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll. These pages are an examination of vice, our guilty pleasures and hidden desires, illegal activities and legal yet stigmatized ones.

In the “Sex” section, we talk about everything from sexual fetishes to hookups to strip clubs. In “Drugs,” you can read about marijuana (on an especially apt day), Adderall and student drug dealers.

Finally, in “Rock & Roll,” you can see how it all fits together to make up the college culture, whether that’s through an analysis of cigarette stigma or an equation for the perfect Saturday night rager.

Throughout the issue, we talked to real students who are actually doing the things we’re writing about, which means a lot of anonymous sources to protect the identities of those who requested it. We also talked to campus resources like the Center for Health Education and Wellness and Knoxville-area physicians when appropriate.

We hope you read this and know you’re not the only one who has a secret addiction to cigarettes. You’re not the only one who has made the decision not to drink or do drugs in college. You’re not the only one hooking up with someone who might be bad for you. You’re not the only one who masturbated to a Judy Blume novel (Okay, Jenna Butz, you might be the only one).

And when you stop feeling like you’re the only one who could possibly be doing (insert supposedly terrible thing here), you get to be free to make the decisions that are best for your mental, social and emotional health.

We’re happy to help.

Claire Dodson is a senior in English and the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beacon. She can be reached at [email protected].