From: aw00+@andrew.cmu.edu (Angela Williams)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: Re: How to Keep Kids off Drugs?
Date: 22 Jul 92 00:13:16 GMT
Organization: Doctoral student, Urban and Public Affairs, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

I was re-reading the initial message posted by Mary Howard to try to gain
better insight into the problem being discussed.  I'm still not sure if
she was trying to get at the problem of young people using or selling.
Regardless, I think this is a very important issue to discuss, although
the factors influencing each may differ.  I beleive it was Fred who
initially stated that a way to counteract usage is to -possibly- curtail
the 
availability of the substance.

The complex nature of the issue makes it almost impossible to isolate
all of the contributing factors and in turn address them in an attempt
to eliminate the problem.  I believe re-establishing strong family ties
as a value in our communities is a start, but I don't believe it will
solve the problem.  We will still have the problems of influences from
peers and the media.  We must realize that our children's peers and the
media still have a very strong influence on their lives.  The
personality of the child may determine the weights applied to each
influence (parent, peers and media).  

Dealing with the selling side--we need to look at what is valued in our
community.  In many instances, success is measured by material
possessions.  One of the attractive features of dealing drugs is fast
money without the hassle of filling out an application.  It is possible
that if success were a measure of factors such as wealth of spirit
rather than measures that do not distinguished between legal and illegal
attainments of wealth, drug dealers would not be valued more than some
businessman.  Similarly, we should not be so quick to label some members
of our communities as sellouts (eg. businessmen for places such as IBM)
when there are those aiding in the destruction of our communities are,
in some cases, admired.

Just decreasing unemployment won't work either.  Most of the jobs that
will be made available will not be able to compete with the weekly or
even daily wages of a drug dealer.  The environment will not be as
familiar either.

Education--Well, I wonder about the educational system.  There are still
individuals who have received an education selling and using drugs. 
Then we promise our young people if they "stick in there and get an
education" they'll find a rewarding job.  Unfortunately, it doesn't
always work that way.  Pushing education isn't the best solution
(especially now).

It is my OPINION (that's opinion--I do not have any data to back this
up) that efforts should be made to address as many factors as possible
at one time.  (Maybe programs addressing a combination of factors will
cause the effectiveness of addressing some factors to combat the
ineffectiveness of others).  I fear that addressing one area will just
put more strains on another. Steps must be made to change the values
that are held by some of our young people.  I admire young people who
still value life, respect their elders, resist peer pressure and pursue
an education.  If we as a community want to discourage our youth from
selling (or using), we should:

        1)  stop looking down on Micky D's as a place of employment; 

        2)  offer alternative means of employment;

        3)  stop turning a blind eye to the purchases paraded in front of us;
                                 
                                and/or

        4)  become more active in our children's lives -- AS A COMMUNITY.

The extended family must be reborn!



It's frightening when incarceration and death are no longer means of
deterrence.



Just a question:  does anyone know if there are any discussions (read
published figures) on the amount of drug money circulating within our
communities?  That's including those businesses operating in our
communities that are not black owned and/or operated.  I know that this
is difficult to measure since the money is illegal.  However, I know
that in my hometown of New Haven, there are rumors of businesses that
accept/have accepted drug money.

BTW:  In this post, our communities=black communities in this article. 
I am aware that there are non-blacks who read this net.