A Second Look at Drugs in e I) "f s Jewish Community
(Continued from Page 1)
In 1968, the subject revolved
around, primarily, marijuana
and its effects on young people.
Although there is uncertainty
as to just what are the long-
• term effects of pot (marijuana)
smoking, many authorities agree
that the majority of those who
try it on occasion will not suffer
immediate physical, or psycho-
logical, harm. They also agree
that marijuana, like alcohol, is
here to stay.
But today there are other, even
more sophisticated areas to cause
oncern: hallucinogenics and the
hard drugs that once were the
monopoly of inner-city ghettos,
cocaine and the king of them all
—heroin.
Three years ago, Dr. Morris
Weiss, a Huntington Woods child
psychiatrist, said he was as-
tounded by the number of drug
abuse cases coming into his of-
fice. Since that time, he has seen
even younger children (down to
the fifth and sixth grades) trying
drugs, mainly marijuana.
Dr„ Weiss doesn't view the sit-
uation' as an epidemic, but he
acknowledges that heroin is in
•greater use among suburban
young people, including Jews,
than it was three years ago. What
also concerns Dr. Weiss is that
"the favored kinds of drugs shift
according to availability." When
(marijuana becomes difficult to
obtain, the demand for more dan-
gerous drugs goes up. The latter
includes hallucinogenics, like mes-
caline, LSD and animal tranquil-
izers; and stimulants and barbi-
turates.
No one likes to talk percent-
ages—for obvious reasons. Some
drug users deny they are; some
nonusers boast of it. Is the oc-
casional pot smoker to be clas-
sified with the mainliner (one
who injects a drug directly in-
to the vein)? And if marijuana
increasingly is being grouped
with alcohol as a fact of life,
should it be included in the
problem at all, aside from its
legal ramifications? For every
person who argues that most
rug addicts started with mari-
-"lona, there's another person to
. tounter that most pot smokers
.do
_ not go on to hard drugs.
In a recent survey reported by
.the, Journal of the American Medi-
`-*1„.„Association, 60 per cent of
54000 students on the West Coast
• responded that they had tried
drugs, from the one-shot experi-
ment with marijuana on up to
regular use. Dr. -Ronald Krone,
director of emergency services at
Detroit General Hospital, guesses
thaf:Ake- ligure would .hold locally
fi
r. Krone, 'whb• serves as a
volunteer on the board of direc-
rs of a Southfield "crisis inter-
ntion" phone service, Headline
est, has had ample opportunity
o see what drugs are doing in
both inner-city and suburb. He
could not say if young Jews are
involved beyond their proportional
representation in the general pop-
ulation, but feels the problem
"runs rampant in all communities,
including Jewish."
The Common Ground, a crisis
intervention center in Birming-
. ham, reported in an informal study
of four junior high and high
schools in Oakland County, that
38 to 50 per cent of the respon-
dents. indicated they use drugs,
including marijuana. This figure
excluded the one-time experi-
menters.
Last December, Samuel Lerner,
director of the Jewish Family and
Children's Service, did a survey
of his own, based on the case load
serviced by the agency in 1970.
By the second week of that month,
he said, "we had seen something
like 67 cases" with some drug in-
volvement. In most instances, he
stressed, drugs were not men-
tioned as the sole problem; they
emerged in the course of counsel-
ing for other disorders, such as
family problems. Of the 67 who
brought up drug usage, 57 iden-
tified the drug as marijuana. "Of
course, if a kid comes to us with
a family problem, we treat the
family problem," Lerner said.
He could not compare his fig-
ures to the previous year because
"we didn't have that kind of sur-
vey in 1969. We weren't getting
that many cases where drugs were
a concern."
Rabbi Groner sees the initial
task as one of getting the commu-
nity to recognize the seriousness
of the issue.
Contrary to the opinion of those
who see no harm in marijuana,
Rabbi Groner views its use and
that of harder drugs as part of
the same problem. "Recent medi-
cal evidence tends to indicate that
marijuana has certain subtle, in-
sidious dangers to emotional stab-
ility, particularly of children. In
my counseling, I see only the tip
of the iceberg; the actual prob-
lem is far larger. It involves great
numbers of young people experi-
menting with drugs who see noth-
ing immoral or improper in its
use."
"Many adults," he said, "have
misled young people in suggest-
ing that indulging in marijuana
is not serious. In repeated use.
there are many risks for adoles-
cents, relating to personality dis-
orders. And changing the laws
(to legalize marijuana) will not
selve the problem."
Observing young people in an-
other context, Sam Goldstein, a
psychologist and counselor for the
Jewish Vocational Service, tends
to agree that some effects are
noticeable even among the less
habitual users of marijuana. "The
user is less interested - in school
and work—sort of apathetic and
out of it for awhile. But I haven't
seen any physically debilitating
reactions." Neither does he feel
that heroin is as serious a prob-
lem in the Jewish community as
it is in many other communities.
An optimistic view came from
the JVS assistant director, Gerald
D. Goldstein, who considers drug
use a "dangerous fad" that nos
sibly will reach its peak, then
decline as more and more young
people become aware of its ef-
fects "and as we try to meet. the
needs of the young."
His observation isn't far from
the opinion of Dr. Weiss, who
notes some encouraging signs,
although he's not minimizing
the current problem. "Drug us-
age among college students has
decreased. Perhaps the trend
will percolate downward, and
younger people may get the idea
that it's not so cool."
In addition, "most kids who are
experimenting with marijuana
aren't necessarily in bad drug
trouble. Sometimes it can be han-
dled by talking it out, or by ri ,..c-
ognizing that it's a sympto --1 of
some disturbance in the child and
taking it from there."
Dr. Weiss is encouraged by
what he feels is a growing tend-
ency among parents to detect a
problem and react with less panic
than they would have in the past.
They're more knowledgeable about
drugs and better equipped to han-
dle a situation when it first arises,
Dr. Weiss has observed.
If anyone has had to meet the
problem head-on, it is Sam Mar-
cus, director of Camp Tamarack.
He did not deny that pot smoking
among the college- and high-
2chool-age counselors has been a
problem in the past. "But for
some reason," he said, "we don't
have a problem this year. We have
a pretty good idea of what goes
on, and we've been getting no
such reports back. We took a
strong position on hiring — both
verbal and in writing — and the
counselors know that anyone
caught smoking pot will be thrown
out." It could have been a tight
job situation that brought out the
applicants, "but we've got the
best staff I've seen in the 20 years
I've been here."
He added that teen campers
also are warned they must abide
by the no-drug rule, "or be sent
home."
But the concern is still there.
And most Jewish Welfare Fed-
eration agencies have had to
face it in one form or another.
Last Deceimber, the directors of
Federation's social service agen-
cies explored the question at
an inter-agency meeting.
They agreed on one point: that
young Jews are increasingly in-
volved with drugs. As to its ex-
tent or whether it is an issue for
Jewish communal involvement,
there was no such unanimity of
opinion.
It is a hesitation born partly
of experience. Detroit's Federa-
tion jealously guards its national
reputation for careful study of a
question before "rushing into the
breach," as one local official put
it.
Detractors argue that this is a
copout. Supporters argue that
this r :es out much needless ex-
penditure and time-consuming ef-
fort that bears no fruit.
In February, the National Jew-
ish Welfare Board held a consul-
tation on drug abuse for center
personnel throughout the country.
"In response to the epidemic na-
ture of the drug ambiance among
young adults and teen-agers," the
position paper stated, Jewish cen-
ters and YM-YWHAs, in concert
with other Jewish and nonsectar-
ian communal agencies, "need to
examine and evaluate their exist-
ing services to youth and to be
prepared to experiment and in,no-
vate new approaches to meet the
crisis."
Detroit's own Center views the
question differently. "I'm not
minimizing the problem," said
Executive Vice President Irwin
Shaw, "but Center's function is as
a preventive agency, not a treat-
ment agency. We don't treat phy-
sicall ysick kids either. It's not our have to cut out other programs."
job. We take healthy kids and try
Norman Olshansky, the 25-year-
to keep them healthy. Not all kids
(Continued on Page 44)
are interested in drugs. Kids who
may occasionally smoke a joint THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
may come to the Center, but regu-
Friday, July 30, 1971-17
lar Center users probably don't;
they don't find a Center atmos-
phere congenial to them."
Shaw complains that too many
Used or New to
agencies in too many commu-
BRANDEIS
UNIV.
nities "have a tendency to fly
from one issue to another. Every-
WOMEN'S COMMITTEE
body wants to get on the band-
wagon and get credit for it."
Drop off day Sun., Aug. 8,
1 1 to 4 at 704 W. 7 Mile Rd.
The Detroit Center has offered
an in-service training program for
Hard or paperbacks Records,
its staff so that they can recog-
Natl. Geographic, Art, Antiques &
nize symptoms, Shaw said. There's
Gourmet Mag.
also the ongoing informal contact
DI 1-2461 .
between staff and youngsters who
may be toying with the idea of ex-
perimenting. But large meetings,
such as lectures on drugs, have
fallen by the wayside, and for
obvious reasons. Young people
aren't interested in being lectured
to, and the parents who need help
the most are not about to bare
their souls in a public forum.
"In the long run," said Shaw,
"the enrichment of programs to
reach the kids before they're
involved is, by far, the best
immunization. If we don't suc-
20811 W. 8 Mile
ceed as a preventive agency,
then that's where we're falling
between Southfield & Telegraph
down. We're far from doing all
the things that need to be done.
Funds are too limited to de-
velop enough kinds of program-
Our Promise To You:
ing to meet a greater variety
BETTER SERMEI
of program needs. If we had
the perfect youth program, it
would be so expensihre we'd
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