1967
1968

 

 

 

 

SOUTHWORDS
January 1968

Drug abuse growing public problem
by Walt W.

    Drug abuse is rapidly becoming a problem in law enforcement and in the psychological nature of our community. This problem rests mainly in the youth of Park Ridge, Niles, Morton Grove, and Harwood Heights who may also attend Maine South and Maine East. The student body must inform itself about the problem and its causes.
    In my personal estimation, which is conservative, the problem presents itself in the following areas: in Park Ridge 1.25 percent of the population is experimenting with drugs; 1.21 percent of the student body at Maine South is "actively" using drugs; 5 percent of the Maine South student body is actively experimenting with drugs ranging from marijuana to LSD.
    In primitive times drugs were used in religious, magical, and social events. He who controlled drugs, potions, and herbs had great political power as well as spiritual power over the tribal community.
    "The times they are a'changin'," to quote Bob Dylan, as now drugs and drug abuse is deemed a social evil due to psychological and sophistication needed by the individual to become a healthy part of society.
    It is generally conceded that society is only as healthy as the individuals who comprise that community. As man has progressed to his present state, drugs have become a "false illusion" detrimental to society.
   The rationale for such a conclusion is that drugs interfere with the proper intellectual processes needed by an individual to sustain a proper position in society.
    Present publicity and popularity of drugs presents the Maine South student with a tempting and dangerous choice. We are adolescents, searching for a proper perspective. We want to know how to become useful individuals in society and how to become useful to ourselves. We form moral and value systems during this time.
    To the hippy set, drugs act as an assistant to this quest. Values and philosophy espoused by such people are similar in nature: stimulate the senses to manifest a moral code for a love society.
    Hippies have shut themselves off from society in the mainstream and are attempting to escape reality.
    The problem with drugs as an assistant in this process rests upon its unintellectual method of adaptation to a new subculture. Adolescence is a time for the mind to function intellectually, to view value codes objectively and eventually form opinions. Drugs blur this function; drugs induce a state of euphoria which is not a part of the realistic world.
    What is even more dangerous to the individual involved is the fact that hallucinogens, and marijuana may affect the psychological make-up and the physical condition of the body. This could include brain cell damage which reduces the user to a state of being a vegetable.
    Perhaps the motivating factor behind the escape to drugs rests upon social rejection. Rejection from any group causes people to withdraw into cliques, certain cliques may turn to drugs as their escape from the reality of their rejection.
    "I'm just hung up with this school, with this society, with this whole system," reports one experimenter. "The kids I met when I first came here were snobs--one person thinks he's better than the rest. I found a couple kids who were hung up, too. When they began turning on, so did I."

    "There are inequities in our society," says a person who has never experimented, "but the system can be remedied without dropping out."
    "I turned on once, but not again," said another student.
    "Well--some guys have, and others don't. I just hang around with those kids who are not--not going against me," stated one girl.
    A psychologists tell us that "... if there was more integration of students as to race, color, religion, opinion--and less social rejection as to these forces, then the motivation towards drugs would be greatly deterred."
    "If people would practice friendship on the basis of brotherhood, and forget their prejudices for even a short while, I think this problem would be licked in our school," one male senior told me as we walked down the hall. "More communication between cliques and individuals--more understanding."