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Also in the car, near her body,
was another scrawled message: "Jail
didn't cure me. Nor did hospi–
talization help me for long. Tbe doc–
tor told my family it would have
been better, and indeed kinder, if
the person who got me hooked on
dope had taken a gun and blown
my brains out. And l wish to God
he had. My God, how
I
wish it."
Unfortunately , thousands of
young people could write similar
stories. Seventeen-year-old Eileen
did. She began keeping a diary to
chronicle her feelings about drugs
and her life.
"When I wake up in the morning,
all I can think about is where to get
money for more drugs," Eileen
wrote.
"Drugs are hell," she said. "I bate
drugs. They [her drug- taking
friends] all put drugs before health,
food and money.
"What worries me," Eileen con–
tinued, "are the wrinkles in my face
and the infection in my veins. I'm
very sad when 1 think what I've
done with my life. I feel like dying.
I've had all the chances and be–
trayed all the trust.
"Why did
I
ever start? Drugs are
evil. They cause mental ilJness,
aging skin, baldness and rotting
teeth. I can no longer behave natu–
rally," she lamented.
When Eileen had first begun her
diary, she wrote:
"1
tbink I can last
for nine months, but in
18
I will be
dead."
She missed prophesying that fate–
ful day by
15
months. One night,
only three months after beginning
her diary, Eileen walked out of a
party in Newport, Wales, where she
had been dropping LSD, smoking
marijuana, and taking barbiturates.
She wandered to the top of a multi–
story garage and fell
30
feet to her
death onto a slab of concrete. Her
body was discovered the next morn–
ing, scantily ciad and painted in red
lipstick with arrows and four-letter
words - a wretched end to a futile
life.
Obviously, not every child or per–
son who pops a pill, trips on LSD,
or smokes marijuana will have a tra–
gic end like the two unfortunate
girls just mentioned. But the
chances that it may happen are
greater for those who do use drugs
or who experiment with them than
for those who do not. It is not worth
the chance.
Tragically though, too many
young people are taking that
chance. In sorne areas of the world,
as mucb as
75
percent of the high
school students or secondary school
students have experimented with or
are regularly using drugs.
It
is not
uncommon for grade school chil–
dren to pop pills, take LSD trips,
smoke marijuana, or even shoot
heroin and snutf cocain.
Rare indeed is the high school or
college party where marijuana is not
smoked. Smoking a joint today is as
acceptable to young people as
drinking a glass of beer was a few
short years ago. lt's not unusual for
a group of college students studying
together to end their study session
with sorne pot.
Even France, long considered un–
touched by the massive drug prob–
lem ofthe rest ofthe Western world,
is now forced to admit a drug-taking
attitude among much of its youth.
According to French police statis–
tics, drug-use arrests in
1971
were
97
percent higher than they were in
1970.
More than half of those in–
volved young people from "normal"
bornes. Sorne French authorities es–
tímate that
20
percent of the stu–
dents in their last year of high
school have tried hashish, and
50
percent of the school children even–
tually know how to procure it.
This attitude is oot just restricted
to the Westero world, as rnany
people rnight believe.
Hong Kong is reported to have
nearly
150,000
heroin addicts alone,
and frorn Indonesia to Thailand, i
t
is estimated that there are hundreds
of thousands ofyoung drug users. In
Jakarta, Indonesia, there are sorne
300,000
youngsters who are either
hooked on heroin or who occasion–
ally experiment with it. The fact is,
rnost areas of the world find them-
PLAIN TRUTH December 1973