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Dr. Rolf Affemann, well-known
Stuttgart psychotherapist, put his
fi nger on it. He wrote recent ly
regarding drug offenses among
youth: " If we want to ... survive as
a society, then each individual has
to set himself new priorities. We
must relearn the old truth that man
does not live by bread ·alone.... 1f
we continue in our present life–
style, we will destroy ourselves· and
the world we have built."
Disillusionment and disappoint–
ment in today's world are produced
by a self-centered, profit-oriented,
material ist ic "get" society. There
needs to be a total change in t he
direction of society, in overall life–
style. Only then can the underlying
cause of t he d rug-alcohol abuse
problem be resolved.
Swl tzerland's Number One Worry
The number one worry of the Swiss
is the drug problem. People are
concerned more about it than about
violence in the streets, inftation, the
envi ronment or housing.
In a Swiss survey
10
percent of
those questioned admitted to hav–
ing used d rugs. These traditional,
harder-to-obtai n drugs, however ,
are not the only problem. Disturb–
ing numbers of young Swiss are
turning to analgesics and other
over-the-counter medications, even
mixing them with alcohol. Anyone
can buy the medications. And the
alcohol is easy enough to come
by.
As in so many other count r ies,
efforts being made to resolve the
drug problem are primarily di–
rected to cutting off the supply,
prosecuting distributors, dissemi–
nating informat ion about the dan–
gers of drug use and other such
treatments of the effects. Far too
litt le attention is g iven to the
causes!
A criminal lawyer in Geneva,
having dealt with many cases of
drug addiction, remarked recent ly:
"1 don't know of a single example
of drug addict ion among youths
which has not been characterized
by a tot al lack of communication
between t he young person and his
fami ly."
Troubled family situations are an
important contributing factor. But
it goes deeper than t hat. Drugs fill
40
a void in life; they substitute for a
sense of purpose that is lacking
when one does not understand what
life is all about. T he head of a drug
reliabil itation program in Geneva
summed it in these words:
~'It's
easy to obtain drugs. And
then, because of a disgust of life,
because of hopelessness, a process
takes place which Jeads to suicide
by an artificially imposed paradise.
1 insist that it is wrong to think in
terms of 'curing' those on drugs.
They are not s ick. Detoxification
without something at the end of the
road is worthless."
There is a goal , a purpose in life
to work toward. But how many
have found it? How many know
why t hey were boro ?
France's Own " Frenc h
Connection' '
When the cover carne off the d rug
problem as it exists among young
people in France, it was shocking!
IÍ
there had previously been a
reluctance to see the problem, to
admit its existence, now it was on
page one of t he newspapers and on
television. And the more public
attention it got, t he more wide–
spread it was found to
be~
What has been especially dis–
turbing is that the use of drugs is
not confined to
soci~l
dropouts or
delinquents in sorne run-down sec–
tion of París. I t is found throughout
France, in picturesque country vil–
lages as well as in grim indust r ial
neighborhoods- in all levels of
society. Young people experiment–
ing with drugs could no longer be
described as an "American phe–
nomenon that does not happen
here."
·T he alarming trend has been
toward the use of drugs by increas–
ing numbers in t he younger age
brackets. Most drug users a re
between the ages of 12 and 25.
Why are so many young people
turning to hashish and other hallu–
cinogens? T he reasons commonly
given are fo r pleasure, for t he
excitement of doing something for–
bidden, to do what friends do, to
satisfy a habit, to forget problems
at home or at scbool.
O r , as one youngster sniffing
glue remarked, " 1 don't want to
destroy myself. But 1 have nothing
to do, nothing to do, nothing to
do... . "
Concerned par ents, educators,
judges, physicians and police have
compi led t he major characteristics
of the envi ronment that especially
fosters drug use or dependency.
They have found it oenters around
an upset family situation, a broken
or troubled marriage, conftict or
lack of communication between
parents and children, family mem–
bers wit h mental illness or suicida)
tendencies, d rug use or alcoholism
by other members in the family.
T he . presence of alcoholism in
the fami ly may be of special signif–
icance in France, s ince France
holds the world record fo r the
amount of alcohol consumed per
capita.
It
amounts to
16
liters Uust
under
17
U.S. quarts) per person
per year of
pure
alcohol!
French programs designed to
combat the d rug problem generally
stress informing the public about
drugs and t hei r danger, helping
par ents whose children ·are into
d rugs, and assisting drug users to
break the habit. But t h ese
approaches do not get to t he hear t
of th e problem. They don ' t
straighten out family or other s itua–
tions
before
t hey lead to drug use.
They don't aim at changing human
nature.
A controversial movie very popu–
lar with young people in France
and other parts of Europe is a fi lm
by Ulrich Edel.
It
concerns a 13-
year-old drug addict and prostitute.
M r . Edel claims that t hrough real–
ism in the film he is attempting to
show t he horrors of t he drug
scene.
"What is striking about young
addicts of the '80s," M r . Edel
remarks, " is that they give up on
life before even living it. They see
t he world of adults and they 'get
off' like one gets off a train....
And it is not sufficient to explain
that kind of total rejection in terms
of secondary causes, monotonous
cities, short-comings at home or at
school. I t's a whole 'spiritual appa–
ratus' of society which must be
blamed. The malaise is not merely
ec0nomic and social, but psycho–
log r:al-spiritual."
It
is this very spiritual aspect
that most antidrug programs do not
The
PLAIN TRUTH