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Kiwanis Starts Operation Drug Alert

Cannabis sativa, the plant from which
marijuana is harvested, grows wild, a fact
which has led a University medical
student with five years of medical
research to speculate that "50 per cent of
Lane High School students have tried it,"
according to a story in yesterday's Daily
Progress.

At a meeting of the Charlottesville
Kiwanis Club Monday night, Gary Welsh,
co-chairman of the community education
committee of the Mulholland Society of
the University Medical School, also said
that "maybe 30 per cent of junior high
students have tried marijuana."

Mr. Welsh is in his sixth year of study
concerning drug induced birth defects
and anatomy and will soon receive both his
M.D. and Ph.D. degrees.

Since the plant grows wild, Mr. Welsh said, it
can be raised in the back yard or in a flower
pot. In addition it is easily attainable in
Washington, D.C. For these reasons, he feels the
drug is more available than most people think.
"I'm sure," he said, "law officials would agree
that marijuana is all over Charlottesville."

The meeting was the first training session for
the Kiwanis Club's Operation Drug Alert, a
program of drug-abuse education directed
toward the community in general and teenagers
in particular. John Bowen, former narcotics
agent for the federal government, is heading the
Kiwanis program.

Mr. Welsh and Bob Wiley, another Mulholland
Society member, along with a group of
University medical students, have made themselves
available to present evidence on the use
of drugs to both young people and their
parents.

According to the Daily Progress, they have
already spoken to some area junior and senior
high schools, and plan to speak to more.

"We attempt to point out the hazards of
drug abuse," Mr. Welsh said. "We simply tell
them that these drugs produce beneficial effects
but they also have dangerous side effects which
they are ignoring."

The most serious concern of the physician is
that the individual will begin to require the
drugs. Addiction is the situation where the
body physically requires the drug to function.

Habituation is present when the individual
needs the drug to perform adequately in
society. The two situations are identical, Mr.
Welsh said, "to everyone except the physician
who treats the two problems differently. To the
individual it doesn't matter."

Marijuana is not addictive and there is no
evidence that it necessarily leads to harder
drugs, Mr. Welsh added. There is ample proof
that it leads to prison terms and ruined careers.

Mr. Welsh said that "the strongest point to
the high school student is that many college
admissions offices will not admit that they
reject applicants because of a conviction for
drug abuse, but the truth is they have enough
trouble on their campuses without admitting
convicted drug abusers.