Violation of the terms of probation may result in the original sentence being imposed by the court. WHAT CAN BE DONE? Source: Statement by District Attorney Evelle J. Younger. Every person in the community-young person and adult-can do something about the narcotics problem, and this is what the District Attorney's office and other law enforcement agencies urge. Many groups throughout the county including the District Attorney's Young Citizens Council, the Peninsula Council for Youth in the Palos Verdes area, the Smarteens project in Lynwood, the Outraged Citizens of Encino and discussion groups in Woodland Hills and Norwalk to name only a few are involved. At the basis of any program to attack the narcotics problem is education. It must be effectively brought home to youngsters and their parents the dangers and the seriousness in the abuse of narcotics, marijuana and drugs. In addition to education, strict enforcement is also a necessity in reducing this illegal traffic. The enforcement of laws dealing with this subject, above all other types of criminal activity, rests upon information being given to the police. We do not have victims coming forth to report narcotic crimes as we do robberies and burglaries, so it is important that parents particularly impress their children with the idea that there is nothing wrong about being an "informer" or a "tattle-tale"-not when the course of lives are at stake. It is also important that parents be willing to have their children come forth with information to the police, and, if necessary, testify against those who are transgressing the law. If a drug abuse problem arises in your family, there is an immediate need for a forthright attack on the problem. Get help first, from your doctor, because sudden withdrawal may not be advisable, especially from barbituates. If a youngster suspects that pills or other dangerous drugs are being peddled at school or sold illegally anywhere, school authorities or the police should be notified. They will take it from there. Following this advice and keeping alert for the symptoms will certainly help to eliminate the tragedy of drug abuse. HOW IT STARTS Source: Article in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, November 23, 1967. Those same neighborhood friends with whom "marijuana use begins are often the same friends who initiate the incipient addict to the use of opiates," a team of investigators today reported to the American Sociological Society in San Francisco. As has been often stated, the sociologists said, use of "hard stuff" (heroin, etc.) is usually preceded by the smoking of marijuana cigarettes and arrest. However, the team reported they found two distinct patterns of opiate use. One pattern is associated with marijuana in 16 metropolitan states, including New York, Illinois, Texas and California. A second pattern is found in the southern states where use of opiates is not associated with marijuana. To explain their conclusion about the friends, the sociologists said the addicts had become part of a drug-taking group, "an illegal metropolitan drug subculture, an environment in which there is continuous personal contact with underworld sources of supply." Use of marijuana started early in the metropolitan states. More than 90 percent of the 1,759 addicts from those states had their first arrest at the average age of 18.7 years. The mean age when opiate use started for the same group was 20.9 years. The dominant opiate was heroin (82 per cent); some 85 per cent procured it from underworld peddlers and 88 per cent of them took it intravenously. The experimenters pointed out that the group included representatives of all races, both sexes, and all types of jobs. "In sum, this hospitalized population reflects the diverse sub-groups which comprise the universe of known opiate addicts in the U.S.," said the report. PARENTS CAN HELP Source: Darkness On Your Doorstep, a pamphlet published by Los Angeles County. |