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. 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