Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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ONE OR TWO THOUGHTS ABOUT GRASS Drugs — the modern day crutch of youth, the child of our new-found affluence, a little more sophisticated way to get high, the mark of the rebellious youth. All these views have been taken on the subject of drugs, including a few less po- lite ideas taken by members of the old guard. All these opinions, views, and ideas can be put into one set of brackets, and labelled, in large, red let- ters, the Drug Problem. To me, the whole concept of a drug problem is annoying. There arc three more commonly used drugs than marijuana and its cohorts, but these drugs are not presumed to be drugs, but more, they are considered to be a part of society ' There has never been a caffeine problem, or a Nicotine problem, or a diet pill problem. People rely on a coffee break with a cigarette to get them through the morning, an amphetemine to help them keep their appetite down, in order to give up lunch, then a good, stiff drink at night to calm their nerves. Yet these people are quite accepted, defi- nitely not part of the drug problem, in fact just normal human beings, even though they are un- der the influence of drugs all day long. Yet the person found trying to calm down at night through the use of marijuana or hashish, is, at best, a degenerate of the first order. This concept of social acceptance is started very early, though by parental concern. Many boys know that they can go to a party, and come home late in the night, thoroughly intoxicated, and receive no more than a token handslap. After all, this is part of growing up. If that same boy were to come in looking a bit stoned, he would undoubtedly be lectured, and his parents would wonder ‘Where did we go wrong? This is partial- ly understandable, however, as when these par- ents were young, drugs had quite a different pic- ture associated with them. They see pictures of junior in a back alley w ith a couple of seedy look- ing characters, pumping heroin into his arm with a dirty hypodermic needle. Or they see their son getting mixed up with the Mafia, with killers and racketeers. Neither of these pictures is comfort- ing. Yet, they should see another picture, to be at all fair in their judgement. They should see a pic- ture of junior lying drunk in a jail overnight, with thieves and prostitutes and alcoholics. They should see pictures of their boy panhandling on the street to get enough money to buy another bottle of cheap wine. Yet these pictures are seen by surprisingly few parents. It can never happen to their boy if he drinks, but it is inevitable if he uses drugs. Part of this parental concern is developed be- cause of the aura of the “pot party. The most publicized types of youth gatherings are these parties which have been raided by the police, and the people have been apprehended for the use of drugs. The people taken at these parties are usually quite indignant, and so the idea that pot ; induces violent behavior results. However, the customary procedure of “busting a party is usually not outlined. Firstly, all people involved

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Ralph Gleason suggests that “the Establishment has ripped off the people’s culture and is selling it back to them. This is probably the key to the problem. Seats at “Woodstock ”, the movie, sell for $3.50. Records list price at six or seven dollars. Johnny Winter is under a $600,000 con- tract with Columbia Records. Commercialism has bought out the sub-culture and packaged it for a resale. It can no longer be a sub-culture when it is accepted by everyone (es- pecially those who have financial motives). Somewhere between “Mv Generation (“Why don’t you all f-f-fade away? ) and Altamont the wheels stopped turn- ing. The Merry Pranksters broke up, with Ken Kesey re- treating to Oregon. Timothy Leary was busted and Brian Jones died. It was not sudden, but a slow breakdown of a movement that never reached its peak. Here we must clarify the difference between the sub-cul- ture and the “revolution ’’. The revolutionaries want to de- stroy; their thought is illogical and they favour anarchism. The backers of the sub-culture wished to create a new cul- ture that could co-exist with the straight culture. It consisted of rock concerts at the Fillmores, “Be Ins at Golden Gate Park, wearing “freak clothes, and living on a shoestring budget. The basic point here is that it was underground, something special. Now drugs have tightened their grip on suburbia, rock festivals charge astronomical prices, and the textile industry is making a fortune from former “freak styles. Long hair is almost an accepted convention now. Abbie Hoffman said in 1968 that “long hair is my black skin”, a sign of rebellion. If he said that today he’d be laughed at. It is not wrong that the sub-culture is being accepted by the straight world. It has its merits that need to be accepted. But this acceptance is leading to a synthetic culture, one of nine-year-olds wearing flair pants and flashing a peace symbol. It has lost its vibrancy. Its founders, for example Kesey, have fled, trying not to be caught up in the plastic. Where it was once beautiful, it is now phony and commer- cialized. The problem is the absence of a movement to re- place it. The old movement has splintered, leaving a vast void in the underground. There is no true sub-culture any- more, just a TV generation with paisley flairs and their Life reports of Woodstock under thei r arms. i s pearson 19

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are grabbed by the throat to keep them from swallowing the drug, and, on occasion, have been hit in the diaphram to help them cough up any- thin g in their mouth. They are then frisked, and the house is quite literally ransacked (the news term is searched) to check for any more dope. This sort of action, taken by the police, is sure to result in somewhat indignant people being taken out of the house. Yet, their seemingly violent temperment is not the result of the drug, but the result of something less than tactful treatment by the police. Due to this taint associated with grass, many people will phone the police if they suspect youths to be quietly sitting in a house, smoking marijuana and listening to records, when they would not if they knew they were drinking beer and making drunken fools of themselves. This distrust of marijuana unlike alcohol also has to do with the laws applying to the illegal use of the drug. A person under 21 caught consuming liquor draws the usual token handslap, this time in the form of a small fine. The person does not get a criminal record, he is just considered a normal, spirited adolescent and it is left at that. If this same person were caught with as little as one gram, less than one twentieth of an ounce, he can draw a heavy fine, or can be shipped to a penitentiary with theives and murderers. This youth is a criminal, and holds a record which will limit his future job opportunities, educational opportunities, and social acceptance. If the youth is apprehended in possession of more than three ounces of the drug, he is considered to be “traf- ficking,” and can draw a life sentence, and in some states in the U.S. can draw a death penalty. Is marijuana so terrible a drug that its use war- rants the sending of the user to prison, to spend time with people who don’t want to be a useful part of society ' ”’ In this case, the cure is much worse than the disease. If proper education were given about drugs, about their effects, their dangers, and their pro- per usage this aura of danger and degeneracy would not hang over the drug user’s head. Per- haps the drug problem would slowly fade away, and be accepted, the same way as alcohol, and cigarettes, and diet pills, and coffee. But as long as this education is lacking, there will be a “drug problem”, or, more accurately, the prob- lem of ' thedrug problem”. glenn sernyk