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DRUGABUSE
(Continued from page 9)
You said earller that we need to
get to the root cause of drug
abuse. ls there one root cause?
There isn't any single root cause.
Like mos t important social and
health phenomena, it's multideter–
mined.
But it's clear that in addition to
demographic changes, social and
parental attitudes are very impor–
tant . In past years there has been a
sense of impotence and uncertainty
that was very widespread where
parents felt, "We don't know if it's
right or proper for us to take a firm
stand against drugs."
But that feeling of anxious help–
lessness and uncertainty has
changed substantially in the past
few years. Instead, there has devel–
oped a conviction that it's not only
possible and desirable, but it's real–
ly the
on/y
responsible thing for
parents to do-to take a very active
DRUG SMUGGLERS
(Continued from page 35)
in Bogotá, Colombia. " But the
truth is that the consumer in the
United States is getting just as
much as he needs." What stems
from a drug dealer paying $500 to
an opium poppy farmer for a kilo–
gram of sticky brown sap soon blos–
soms into a few ounces of fine
white heroin worth $300,000 in an
American or European dty.
Slow-moving vessels ladeo with
cocaine creep along the Amazon
River toward the city of Manaus.
The payments go right back into
what has become the economic
mainstay ofSouth America. A police
superintendent in Manaus com–
plains: "We have 186 menina feder–
al police force to control everything
ASIA
(Continued from page 14}
young is a symptom of frustration,
disorientation and a lack of t rue
purpose in life. Prosperi ty and a
better standard of living are not the
answer- for the problem seems to
increase
with what the Asians call
38
stand in opposing use of drugs by
their children.
Say l'm a parent whose chlld is
heavily using marijuana. What
advlce can you glve me?
First, not to run away from it, as
parents used to do a few years ago.
My advice would be first that you
communicate very vigorously the
reasons that you're concerned.
You also have to inform yourself
what the dangers are-not to over–
state them. It's clear that sorne of the
messages put out in the early six–
ties- marijuana will lead people to
rape and murder-causes teenagers
to disbelieve all warnings. They see
their friends using marijuana and
they didn't rape or murder.
So you've got to avoid overstat–
ing the problem--describing conse–
quences that won ' t occur. But,
there's a lot of evidence that 's very
real about what
wi/1
occur.
You have to recognize that if
your child is very heavily into mar-
that happens in an area the size of
Great Britain, France, Spain and
West Germany combined."
Cocaine from Peru, Colombia,
Ecuador, Quaaludes from South
Africa and marijuana from Colom–
bia are transported to the United
States by way of the Bahamas in
smuggling planes ranging from
Cessnas to decrepit DC-6s.
On the other side, when the
United States provided Mexico with
drug-spotting aircraft, heroin pro–
duction in Mexico dropped sharply.
The Mexican government is enforc–
ing tough laws, providing seed and
building roads into remate areas so
farmers will have access to markets
for legitimate crops. Duster planes
spray paraquat to kili marijuana
plants. Soon Mexico will have a full–
scale NASA satell ite-scanning sys-
Westernization. Yet neither are
prosperity and a good s tandard of
living
of themselves
the cause of
alcohol and drug abuse.
What the whole world needs is a
renewal of purpose in goals higher
than the self. Not until the selfish–
ness of the Me generation is wiped
out will the problems of drug and
ijuana- to sorne extent he's lost
substantially his ability to make
independent, sensible decisions.
You have to try rather forceful
means to get him to discontinue
use, even if this might involve try–
ing to break up his peer network.
If
bis peer network is heavi ly using
[marijuana], it'll be very hard for
him to quit.
Young people have fallen into
the trap of believing that by smok–
ing and taki ng drugs they are
asserting independence.
Parents need to point out to their
children that when. they get into
smoking and into drugs, they are
being pushed around by advertising
pressures, by peer pressures- and
it's quite the opposite of an expres–
sion of autonomy. They're being
manipulated. They lose their free–
doro of choice.
So smoking and drug abuse are
really a form of conformity?
Precisely.
tem, donated by the United States,
that can spot a tiny marijuana plot
from an orbit in space.
But the big fish-financiers,
chemists and even police and top
officials- are rarely caught. "We
will never get at the heart of the
problem," declares Bruton Levín,
U.S. embassy official, "until gov–
ernments move with determination
against the kingpins of the trade."
The worldwide drug smuggling
network has uncoiled sophisticated
syndicates that run with far more
efficiency than those involved in
the French Connection.
Nevertheless, drug agents say
that limited supplies, higher prices
and greater risks for top-level traf–
fickers disrupt narcotics operations.
Smugglers reply: "Okay, we know
you know. Now catch us."
o
alcohol abuse cease. But where are
young people to find
as
their high–
est goal the true purpose of life?
Certainly not in today's politics or
in this world's divided religions.
But it can be found- and you
can read it in a free copy of our
booklet
Why Were You Born?
Write for it today.
o
The PLAIN TRUTH