Drug Talk: Some Current Drug Programs 1971

[Music] I have six people that I counted friends who use marijuana and they true they never did graduate to heroin you know why because on marijuana they committed crimes of passion and were electrocuted before they got a chance to get hooked on horse don't help me you get away from me you get away from me you hear me because I don't care anymore and nobody loves me and nobody cares we have the marijuana odor tablets this throws off the aroma and you can identify the marijuana with this and we have the marijuana plants for identification purposes and they're used in the schools and also in the police departments we have three sizes a 28 in 38 and a 48 in throughout the United States schools are being pressured into responding to the unprecedented problems of drug abuse many schools have reacted by inviting independent drug programs into the classroom these programs are often presented from a point of view which many students find difficult to accept as you are going to listen to him lecture to you there will be questions and answers won't there okay I'll introduce to you Sergeant Odo now Odum I'm sorry Odum I'm sorry police officers are frequently invited to speak in the classroom of these which often stress the dangerous and illegal aspects of drugs reflect law enforcement attitudes uh must be taken into consideration I think that we police officers are citizens too we're merely doing a job full-time that your parents can't do because they have to go out and earn a living to support you so therefore we must have the respect and the confidence of the community and your support in order to protect your lives and property now I mentioned that we gather facts and give information it's in the vein of giving information that police officers and other people teachers many people go into the community and give lectures and give programs on drugs okay if we can have the lights turned up please I'll turn the slides on do anybody tell me what they call these what are they what no that's not a roach something else we're look at what is it joint joint that's right bu tell me what those things are what are they what Clips right roach clips that's what they are hair pin somebody said a hair pin that's right that thing in the bottom there is a hair pin that's what they use they use anything just to hold the the roach with now the reason they use the roach clips they like to smoke marijuana down as far as they possibly can okay this one I don't know if you recognize you can tell who that guy in the red and brown shirt is or not but that happens to be my picture there and that just had to be the a large seizure that we've made of this type of drug okay now we're going to talk about something else and what do they call these anybody know downers that's right now anybody know what a downer is what's a downer you well it's something that slows you down okay what is it makes you sleep a lot that's right this is one of the things there are sleeping pills now the blue one anybody know what they call those blue heavens and Blue Angels that's Amo barbar talk what about the red and blue one what is it rainbow rainbow that's right now when they take the drug they will look very much like they're asleep they're they're drunk they're intoxicated under alcohol but the trouble of it is they can take one or two then they might like it you might like one if you take it that foot you see there is of a dead person you see what happened they burned the the complete Soul off of his foot all the skin because they didn't realize that he was actually uh under the influence of this drug and was dead at the time that they were burning his foot they thought they could wake him up now from the Opium poppy plant we get the narcotic drugs that are given to people when they suffer from pain so you break a leg now this is what they use to prepare their heroin with you say well how do they fix it well they put a little bit of the heroin in a spoon little bit of the powder like the brown powder you saw into the spoon then they place a little water with it well it won't mix up because the uh it's not water soluble so they have to heat it they use like the matches you see here on the uh on the screen they use these matches till it gets heated to the way they want it then it becomes liquid then they will put it in the syringe they place the cotton in the spoon now that coton is supposed to remove the impurities in it how come if the doctor prescribes it to you it don't it helps you yet when you take it um without the doctor's prescription you get um ill and sick and things like that now we got to realize that drugs are are good drugs are not bad it's what they're used for now it's the symptoms of the drugs which could be the abuse of the drugs this is a symptom the drugs themselves are good and they manufacture these things to be used for good unfortunately there's people that find that they can get different reactions from them and they abuse them now there's something that we haven't even talked about about drugs the illegal drugs illegal use of drugs are against the law now this is something we all should realize this is one of the biggest problems and it could affect you you're in a a group and somebody takes some pills and they pass out from the don't run don't run tell the police if it's the police that come tell them the type of pills they take this is why so many young people die from overdoses because a person will take a bunch of pills and the group that he was with will get scared and run away I would think that it would be better for any of us to suffer a little bit of trouble a little later on than for that person to die I hope that I've answered some of the questions and I'm going to give you back to the teacher now we'd like to thank you very much [Applause] drug have a very nice holiday please another lecture approach is to use ex addicts Gina a former heroin addict is able to involve the students in an atmosphere of free exchange by being totally candid about her past I was a prostitute for about three years and uh I could not do it unless I was loaded you understand like uh the periods like if I cleaned up and I was on the NCH say you know and if I needed money you know nobody could give me enough money to do something like that but when I was on heroin like I told you before it it kind of insulates you so that you don't feel you know your true feelings that things are kind of removed from you so I'm just here say look at me you know yes 14 you ever have anyone talk to you like you're talking question is when I was 14 did anybody come around and talk to me like this somebody came around to our school and told us the most fantastic stories they said uh never accept an orange from somebody at a football game because it might have dope in it and if you take one bite you know you're hooked forever I'm telling you I was so much against heroin until I saw you know my fella that he didn't fall apart I was surprised you know that he didn't just crumble and drop at my feet and then I said you know they're they're lying it's all lies you know I I wish really maybe it would have helped if somebody had just you know told the truth you feel that by smoking that first joint of marijuana that made you try all the other things I'll tell you there are some people that started smoking grass 20 years ago when I did and today they're still smoking grass or some of them don't even do that anymore in other words they did not progress you understand but then there's other people like me that maybe have some kind of personality problem some hang up more or less like we're more uh we're more disposed to using dope you understand what I'm saying so like I say if you can make like a a really final commitment no on dope that's going to include marijuana acid you know speed dope everything you kind of just save yourself a whole lot of bother you know maybe some people can smoke a few joints take a few pills and that's going to be all they ever do you know but then there's people like me I guess in a way it's kind of like uh alcohol this this is not a professional opinion this is just something that occurs to me that like you know some people can be social Drinkers and other people uh you know got to jump in the bottle you see so it's it's hard to say did I use acid in between uh no uhuh I was I was in between using heroin I was afraid of acid for a long time because uh you know I I had heard that uh you know you you'll really dig yourself on acid you'll you know you'll take a peep at yourself and I didn't want to see me I have I have since tried acid and uh it was very pleas pleasant but uh you know if I were going to use anything I'm afraid I'd still go for that snack Lord have mercy yes I was in San Diego this weekend and there is you know some weed down here and some girl was telling me about she'd smoked this me before and she started hallucinating like really bad like just starting there like she's having rushes and everything uh I was just wondering if you could think of what would be the only thing I can do is relate it to like I know what people do when they make speed or or acid they'll mix strange mixtures into it just so people will get a rush you know and think oh this is great yeah or have you ever heard of putting strick nine in speed because it gives you a rush strick Nine's a poison it's enough to scare me what else how about uppers are people still cranking it away and no it's not like it it used to be I know everybody for a while went to a big speed thing you know that was the most prevalent and downers I don't know how anybody could even dig a downer and this such yeah isn't it an ugly do they like ugly pills people get mean and stupid and sloppy why are people so dumb I should wish I knew cuz it's taking me years and I still don't know why why we could no more tell our parents that like hey you know I've been flipping out or whatever and I need some help I mean I could no more tell my my be out called on the floor if I said something like that have you ever really try I mean I believe the psychiatrist [Music] surren that's that's tough that is but you know what if you if you really like want to save yourself and you really feel uptight like There Are Places call where we are man call and talk to us as a matter of fact we're trying right now to to try and get like a counseling thing going like if somebody really does feel uptight you call us and just wrap on the phone or come down and me or you know one of the fellas or the girls just talk because I know it it is it's important you got to have somebody okay thank you okay it's been a pleasure girl like I say you're you're all beautiful stay that way well thank you very much bab I have to go home often private organizations go to the schools offering packaged programs in the hope of deterring drug abuse students are encouraged to create local drug clubs with the help of a national representative sit down and maintain you're going have to talk louder the reason I am here I am National teen director for the only effective narcotic education and prevention organization in the United States for and by young people these young people are doing something this is the now generation and they're proving it as we say those that leave have the disease called apathy let them go the organization was started primarily as a challenge and the challenge was nothing could be done about the drug problem we only offer as a National Organization suggestions you run the chapter or Club you would have to have a teacher advisor but they work in an advisory capacity only not a dictatorship what you would do at the meetings would be primarily up to you we have suggested methods like I said but the only P people that have anything to do with having these suggested methods work would be you and this is why I'm down here to give you an idea that there is a program like this it is available to you if you want to do it or like I said before you can use the excuse called apathy apathy is the disease that it can't happen to me it can't affect me it's somebody else's problem why worry about it because I love myself so much I haven't got time that's uncool you may not realize it but we've just played a ball game I've just passed the ball to every one of you you can sit there and suck your thumb and drill all over yourself and be a bunch of little slithering idiots or you can catch it and tuck it under your arm and do something get involved quit passing the buck help your other friends and peers get rid of the problem called drug abuse so you could can go on and have a better and bigger problems to challenge you next time yes well don't you think a lot of the students who are really taking drugs are going to think that it's a big best to not come to any of these sessions you've just got to make sure that word gets around that you're not Junior narts you're not you haven't got the training the ability or the intelligence Sharon lanam certainly is able to get down to the level that these kids understand she talks their language does it very effectively hardly no kids pay attention they were just talking to their friends well I think it was enthusiastically received by most of the students that were there about half the people just walked out and just left how come it it was just disinteresting to them just started getting boring despite their efforts most independent drug programs lack genuine student interests others have found that a successful approach depends on the initiative of the students themselves in a 3-day seminar at a rehabilitation center high school students met with ex addicts to discuss drug abuse current programs and possible Alternatives you see it everywhere you know you see posters about drug psychedelic shops here in every neighborhood and they're advocating the use of drugs now how do you see it now I've told you that is it does create a problem or what problem do you see through the use of drugs can you have that much well we've already got the problem we're stuck with it we've got to find some solution at this point some program that we can set up at our schools does everyone agree with that yeah cuz like you have your own program here and it's fine you know but like you're really I mean you were you weren't addicted to like heroin anything but people at school like they're on pills and they're just starting and I mean you have to catch this thing before they get there and you have to make sure that any presentation that's made is always factual because you know you just start telling people if you say like you know well marijuana definitely leads to heroin then you you've turned off 90% of the people right there and they don't give a crap what else you're going to say I've seen it you know on TV I've read it so many times you know speed kills and all of that the pictures of the men you know with their arms all you know needle but I'm still interested in it you see these these pamphlets put out by the police department your child at this very moment may be on the the brink of a Whirlpool of death you know insanity and and parents read this type of [ __ ] and that's all that it is because it well but it's just you can't tell me that that from from smoking marijuana you know that it's a whirl pool of death that you're going to be Su it's it's put in such a melodramatic way that people can't look at things objectively I feel that any effort to combat the use of drugs is good now it's not going to reach everybody but nothing is going to reach everybody it takes different me different techniques to reach people basically you know you've said and that if you need you needed someone to set you straight you know and you're maybe eating downers or smoking weed and I think what we need is people in there who are willing to talk not not willing to talk we're willing to listen the room which we have established here which has become known as the WRA room was developed as a growing awareness last year that the drug problem here on our campus was not yielding to the usual counseling methods or educational methods traditionally carried out we tried to develop a concept of some sort of a way in which we could help these young people and the room grew out of this when I went into the counseling office once to discuss a problem I had second day the next day later my parents found out about I going in there and talk counselor said Danny has a problem you know it's got to be straightened out and I mean you know I didn't want my my people to find out just yet you know I wanted to get you know rap about it and see what I could do myself you came here because you thought you had a problem didn't you yeah I didn't know what the problem was exactly but I've realized what it is now what is it well was like drugs were a big eagle trip for me cuz I i' always been hanging around with people that were older than me like they were doing it in order to prove them I was just as good as they were if not better I had to use just as much drugs as they did if not more and so I did it I've been doing it for quite a while what are you trying to do for one thing uh I'm trying to get my friends to put down in drugs too because I know for yourself you know for myself well that's what I'm doing is for myself because my friends quit it makes it just that much easier for me to quit you you're just trying when it became known around the school that we were even considering setting up a room like this we were recognizing the uh severity of the drug problem with some of our young people I found a lot of the uh drug users the heads saying hello uh the atmosphere of the school seemed to experience a change just because we were trying to do something even though even now what we're doing is a rather minimal thing and still an experimental thing but I believe it did have a positive effect upon the the total feeling in the school we live in kind of a state of Truth you know that's what the best you can do with kids that are in this situation but don't use bad mouths don't use rais in hell with them there's no use pretend they don't belong they're all citizens of the United States they aren't going to be sent to Devil's Island they're going to become citizens one way or another and the best we can do is help them get into a mood to to get out of this thing you [Music] know [Music] for