Blue Ribbon Committee Urges Drugs Analysis Center

ZJ I (Editor's Note: This is the third installment of the report prepared by tTie Citizens' Blue Ribbon Committee for the Study of Drug Abuse. It continúes the committee's recommendations on what the community can and must do to combat the drug abuse problem here.) Ways in which the community can improve facilities for young people have been described at length in the White Panther report and in the Faber Report on the South University riot. Here we need only say that alternative social and recreational activities are essential. It is recommended that: (1) More attention should be paid to the recreational needs of the younger teen-agers in Ann Arbor, as distinct from the older, more autonomous high school and college students, and that immediate work be undertaken to provide specialized community facilities to meet the recreational needs of this group. Such facilities might include the use of neighborhood school gymnasiums and auditoriums for rehearang of bands and theater groups; the use of school workshops for auto mechanics classes and projects; teen-age "coffee houses"; a winter site for year-round rock certs; initiation of an active American Youth Hostel chapter in Ann Arbor and hosteiing activities; coordination of information about youth-oriented activities through a monthly or quarterly calendar; drop-in centers throughout the city, etc. It is urged that movie houses offer student rates to all young people under age 18 and that special student rates be encouraged at cultural activities. (2) A drug information repository should be established at the public library so that the growing mass of material on drugs is easily available to the community. We urge that one of the staff members of the library or a student librarían be assigned this specific responsibility and that this person be sufficiently familiar with the material to act as a consultant to community groups. A community drug education center can play in important supportive and coordinating role in the overall drug treatment program. Briefly, its services may consist of: examination and recommendations with respect to educational films, film strips, pamphlets, books or other audio andor visual material; referral to appropriate community agencies for counseling or educational cialties; operation of a speaker's bureau for coordinating available speakers and requesting groups and organizations; establishment or participation in youthadult dialogue; seeking out other innovative techniques whereby various segments of the community may not only be brought to a better understanding of each other but likewise of themselves and their respective roles in the community so far as drug use or abuse may be concerned. 3) A drug analysis center should be established and its services made available to responsible groups and individuals in the community: physicians, counselors, social workers, youth-serving agencies, parents, Ozone House, Drug Help, Ann Arbor Network and the like. This center should also publicise and regularly report upon the content of the current black market drugs. Despite lengthy debate about the moral issue of providing such a service, the public health value is feit to make this an important community service. 4) An employment services agency . serving a variety of age groups and purposes needs to be established. Right now there is a crucial need for employment opportunities for heroin addicts who are undergoing methadone treatment ai withdrawal. Frequently the formei dict, like other people with long-stai social problems, needs protected ployment together with job-mainta counseling services, and a wel] pared employer. At the present, the employment services do not have time or skills to act as a go-betwee employer and employee to maintai: man or woman on the job and h. complaints. A vocational rehabilit counselor together with a staff of tr volunteer counselors might form a: propriate group. The Model Cities gram is urged to consider developm some portion of this important comm service. Young people age 14-18 form an unique job-needed group. At presen is left largely to individual initiativ cept for the short-lived spurt of munity conscience at the beginnii each summer. And then job prio are for the economically needy youn -and while this is entirely unders able, the social and developmental i of the child from the better-off h remains thwarted. Providing employ opportunities for the adolescent si be reviewéd as a continuing comm responsibility. Work is a valuable incing, anxiety-reducing, independ-training activity which any young on should experience. An investigainto state funds for vvork-study prons in the schools should be made. A permanent county-wide drug comee to review problems and needs, to 3W the efficacy and adequacy of ;ing treatment, and education prois is of vital importance. The memof this committee were all struck he paucity of knowledge about drug e in our community, the enormous for information, for treatment faes, for legal reforms, and the virtual nee of efforts to respond to these s. The only exception to this indictt of community irresponsibility are service agencies developed by colage students to provide information treatment to troubled young people. rwise, there is a large gap between grave need and our rich resources. Washtenaw County Community Menlealth Center has offered to coordinIrug services in the area. ch a lethargie community stance not change without continuing efWe recommend that the proposed nittee be responsible for evaluation :ommunity needs and community rams, coordination of the efforts of us agencies, and stimulation of concerted efforts to improve the range and adequacy of educational and community services to meet our current and rapidly expanding drug abuse problem. Treatment Program Recommendations -The essential first step in considering any treatment program is to determine what resources, facilities or programs are already available to the particular community. With the swelling tide in popularity of "the drug abuse problem" as a topic of conversation and discussion for social, political and religious groups, one might expect solutions or treatment programs to be rampant. Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true. Many agencies or institutions emanate an impression that they have programs for the treatment of drug abuse. Actually, many of these offer little more than a free selection of printed pamphlets describing the scientific and popular ñames of a variety of drugs together with their common usage, known or suspected dangers, and the popular purpose for which each is taken in the drug community. Or, the agency with a "drug interest" may invite inquiries only to make referrals elsewhere, and thereby chalk up brownie points in their own tidy bureaucracy. The better known sources of help and or pamphlets andor referrals in the Ann Arbor community (not listed in order of importance or size) are as follows: Washtenaw County Mental Health Center Ypsilanti State Hospital Ann Arbor Pólice Department Crisis Walk-in Clinic St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Emergency University of Michigan NPI Network Canterbury House Drug Help, Inc. Ozone House Washtenaw County Juvenile Court Summit Street Medical Center n jnOLOur PurPse here to evalúate or grade these or other various agencies or programs. It is possible that they all serve some useful purpose in the com munity drug problem. Unfortunately however, some agencies have withiñ jheivtvncUire the power to establish guide ■ffuñcT direct drughëippn gramsBch could be of much greater value in the area than programs which are restricted or emasculated by established traditions. Numerous studies, both locally and throughout the nation, reveal that a drug treatment program in order to be reasonably successful must meet certain tests and qualifications. Above all it must opérate where and when the need arises. This means in the drug community on a 24-hour basis. The program cannot be institutionalized in the traditional sense and it cannot be dominated or controlled by a particular governmental or established community agency. It must be protected from hostile elements in the community who would sepk to control or destrov it The. program must attract users of drugs and therefore must gain the coniidence and respect of those users To do this the program must utilize peer groups m whom people of the drug community have confidence. Most individuals who come within the reach of a drug treatment program will only do so through the Drug Crisis Center or the mobile crisis teams. Thus there must be key personnel at the "contact point" of the program who can be trusted by the drug community and likewise in whom the established pólice and medical communities can also place their confidence. The program must be flexible, with capability of change in methóds, program or objectives as the changing community needs would indícate. For example, the methadone maintenance program has certain limited tions of the present time. Research and experience may in the future make this program partially or totally obsolete whereupon it should be shelved or replaced by the improved method. Ideally, we believe that a total drug treatment program should be countywide in its service area and the scope of its services should include the following : Crisis Center (or Centers) Mobile Crisis Teams Detoxification Center Drug Analysis Laboratory Methadone Program Halfway House Community Action Work Center Multi-lodge These headings are mere words but in practice each one represents a vital segment in a total community approach to a drug treatment program. The crisis center and program of the mobile crisis teams may well be the keystone to a successful total drug treatment program. These are the doors through which ïndB viduals with drug-use problems will conB into the program whether voluntarily or with the assistance or urging of a friend ' or family. Drug abuse is not a socially j accepted disease and persons troubled with it do not now, nor will they in the future, willingly or voluntarily walk into traditionally established clinical facilities seeking help. In fact, they will not even be dragged in if they can prevent I it. They will, as experiences I strate, approach people who dress and I talk like themselves and in whom they I feel they can confide without punitive I threat or ridicule. Thus it is that a crisis center for thel purpose here being described must ofl necessity be staffed by people of thel subculture, sometimes called street j ple. Such a center must be available around the clock either for casual I ins or for crisis situations. Mobile teams can best opérate from a telephone paging system responding to calis of drug users who are experiencing bad trips or to their friends or parents who cali for help on their behalf . Aside from the fact that such incidents may and frequently do represent genuïne crisis situations, they also provide a contact point between the drug user and the community program which is a vital first step toward treatment. The most disturbed or distraught drug user will probably not approach any traditional clinic or social service agency for help. An experienced crisis center worker can make a successful contact and thereby put in motion the machinery of whatever treatment program is available. _-