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PAGE 16 - PLAINDEALER-FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1974 THE DRUG SCENE: (and the forest behind the trees) .Within one month's time last fall, drug related deaths took the lives of two McHenry youths. The community expressed shock. Less than two months later, High School District 156 opened a five-session public series that focused on the many aspects of the drug abuse and alcohol problem in the area, known as McHenry Alert. How many remembered their shock over those two deaths? And how many wanted to become part of a program of information and action? lYie answer is most graphically described by the photo on this page taken at the first session. Professionals in the fields of mental health, medicine, education and the court look out on an almost empty West campus auditorium. With a community population in excess of 15,000, about 70 persons were seated in the assembly room in the best attended of the five sessions. What did these few parents learn? Itoey were told that drug abuse is many things: the 12- year-old experimenting with glue sniffing....the teen-ager smoking pot....the chain smoker unable to quit....the young woman starting her day with diet pills for a pickup and ending it with a sedative to sleep.. .and the hard core addict shooting heroin. They found that here in McHenry, too often, drug abuse is the wailing siren of the rescue squad rushing to the aid of a student in the freshman-sophomore building. Above all they learned that drug abuse is a threatened person chemically retreating from stress. And the only people who cared were those 70 who gathered in an auditorium that holds 450. - Among the least surprised, but most concerned, were District 156 administrators and faculty members. Long before McHenry Alert they learned the disappointment of parents' indifference and their retreat into excuses that run the gamut. "This is the first time. He was unlucky and got caught". "He's not hooked". Some refuse to recognize the problem, while others rationalize that schools overreact. A few have even threatened to bring a law suit when they were informed that their son or daughter was believed to be on drugs. School authorities speak out frankly in expressing their discouragement. Through widespread press coverage of McHenry Alert to little success, they believe they have exhausted the avenues open to them in reaching the public. Supt. Richard Swantz summarized that discouragement wryly. With a vivid recollection of overdoses he has witnessed, the school leader can only accept the Xtvc b- X)° V ose £V^ o*6,0^e v $ C 0 1* 6 possibility that the mishap of yesterday in the halls of MCHS may be the tragedy of tomorrow. And there is little more the school can do! There is the matter of how drug use compares with a year ago - with three years ago. Administrators say the increase is slowing. There is greater traffic than in 1971 but it is done with more sophistication. Marijuana, most popular of the drugs on campus,.is passed from friend to friend. School leaders know that some obtain it in Chicago and bring it home to share with friends in an insidious, underground network not completely understood. Only a few are known to be taking hard drugs. To determine just how serious is the involvement, the high school conducted an opinion poll on the use of drugs and alcohol. Some of the results are shown on this page, listing information according to class. It was developed in the realization that the answers would not determine accurately how seriously respondents viewed the survey. Most faculty members felt the approach of students was earnest. Many students were less impressed and some even regarded the study as a joke. 4. cr D - v, °* For whatever it is worth, about one out of three polled, representing 81.4 per cent of the student body on both campuses, indicated some experience with marijuana. If the drug survey brings a difference of opinion between youths and adults, it is only one area of diverse viewpoint. A large number of student leaders feel strongly that alcohol, not drugs, constitutes the more serious problem. Many adults recognize its more widespread use but count alcohol less dangerous because it is a controlled drug. This is a comforting thought for the parent justifying his own drinking habits. Correctly, alcohol is under control. Too often the consumer is not. County Coroner Theron Ehorn is very concerned with drug abuse. But he takes the side of youth as he emphatically points to alcohol as the country's No. 1 problem. Ehorn is among coroners selected at random to cooperate in a federal government survey on drugs. Some facts {he has accumulated stand-out as unequivocal. In 1973 there were four McHenry county deaths in which hard drugs were confirmed as the cause. During the same twelve months, a conservative estimate by Ehorn lists alcohol as a factor in more than 70 per cent of all highway deaths. With 100 milligram per cent of alcohol established as the level of intoxication, the range was between 127 and 204. Indeed, the drug scene is very serious in McHenry and it refuses to disappear. But is it possible alcohol may be the forest we can't see for the trees? 0o **2 A £ u £ ?9. 3 4. c Qq Jo io°v* e*. 3. Oq2 r-/jr *4 0 <? *5 0 3? 6* v 5? 0 A c 3. 5 yo r ?. A & C o £ 33 lo *2 h <*> u9 4- 3o 7 7 *6. e <2 12 °Oj VJr. *a 3 *0 33, 6 *6 6. , •2 6 7 J0 * ^'3 i0-s /