HEADLINE: ELMWOOD PARK PARENTS URGED TO JOIN WAR AGAINST DRUG ABUSE
BYLINE: Sabrina Eaton, Correspondent
PUBLISHED: August 19, 1986,
Tuesday; Page C-6 (8 in.) SECTION: NEWS
TEXT: ELMWOOD PARK
Joe, a reformed user of angel dust, marijuana, and
cocaine, told a mostly elderly audience last night of desperation for drugs so
intense that it once drove him to snorting cocaine during a high school class.
At a meeting of the Elmwood Park Homeowners
Association, the 19-year-old Paterson native --along with two state lawmakers
and two drug experts --called for increased parental vigilance and strengthened
laws to punish those who buy and sell narcotics.
But Robert Ross, president of the 200-member homeowners group, said he was
disappointed that teen-agers & younger parents with children in the school
system did not attend the meeting.
"Most of the
people that are here tonight have grandchildren in the school system," Ross
said. "We've got to go to the PTA's and the schools to make the young people
more aware of the drug problem."
Joe, a former Don
Bosco High School student, told the group of 40 homeowners of the chances he
took with drugs in school. "I once snorted cocaine in class when the lights
were down and the teacher was standing right next to me," he said.
Appearing with Joe were Dr. Miller Newton,
president of the "KIDS of Bergen County" drug rehabilitation program; Carol
Loscalzo of the Bergen County Department of Family Guidance; state Sen. Frank X.
Graves Jr., D-35th District; and Assemblyman John Girgenti, D-Hawthorne.
Ross said the homeowners association will hold more
meetings to discuss a Drug and Alcohol Awareness Program to supplement school
and police programs to fight substance abuse.
The
association would like to bring more speakers and drug counselors to the schools
and PTA's, Ross said, but is having trouble finding affordable insurance to
cover a variety show being put together in hopes of raising about $8,000 for the project.
"Our goal is to do something for the kids," Ross
said. "They are driving into New York to buy drugs, and beer-drinking is bad in
town." Don Ingrasselino, a school trustee and a borough detective, said police
and the schools conduct their own drug- and alcohol-education programs for
students. Ingrasselino added that police also make presentations to adult groups
on request.
"Basically, the police department's
philosophy is to make kids in the lower grades aware of what drugs are, what
they do to your body, who does them, and why," he said. "We hope it makes them
aware enough of the dangers of drugs that they won't try them."
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TERMS: ELMWOOD PARK. SCHOOL. DRUG. ABUSE. FAMILY
EDITIONS: Bergen North.
Also in Bergen. Passaic-Morris ORDER NUMBER: 1352062
NOTICE: Copyright 1986 Bergen
Record Corp.