You, your child and drugs

by Child Study Association of America

Genres: Drugs

73 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[David Ward]

You, Your Child and Drugs by the Staff of Child Study Association of America Wel-Met Inc. (Child Study Press 1971) (362.293) (3883).

I found this little volume on a forgotten bookshelf in my parents’ basement. The book was intended as a guide for parents to know how to talk to their children about what had been a huge hot-button issue when this book was published in 1971. For the sake of perspective, this was written just after the Sixties had ended and not long after Charlie Manson and his band of druggies had scared the bejesus out of middle America.

My parents, who were very kind, were concerned and fearful for their own children. In addition, my father was a minister, and my mother was a therapist/counselor (an LCSW), so they were, broadly speaking, afraid of drugs on a professional level.

And I ran them a merry chase, but that’s not the subject of this review.

This 1970s-era anti-drug screed was less inflammatory than I expected. The book’s recommendation in a nutshell is that parents should engage in non-accusatory dialogue with their children about the parents’ own values, which is actually very good advice.

But some of the passages in this book….SHEESH!

I’ll offer a few quotes from the authors. The first two quotes deal with what the authors denote as the first drugs that children abuse: inhalants (glue, solvents, gasoline). The latter two quotes deal with opiates (heroin).

“Children who use inhalants are likely to be in the younger age groups - some as young as six and seven. They are motivated by pressure from peers to try something new and forbidden.” (p. 32).

“When adequate facts are provided by parents, most children will avoid, or stop, sniffing. A small number will continue to use inhalants even after they have been told of the dangers. These youngsters are acting, not out of ignorance, but from a desire to harm themselves. They require not only more careful supervision but, usually, psychological treatment to get at the causes of a compulsion to do what is forbidden and dangerous.” (p. 33). (Like what - curiosity?)

“Most young heroin addicts begin by sniffing or ‘snorting.’ In some neighborhoods, this starts as early as elementary school.” (p.49).

“In New York City, heroin kills more young people than all the contagious diseases combined.”(p. 50).

If you had been a parent in 1971, wouldn’t this have scared you too? From being told that “drug use is caused by peer pressure from six-year-olds to try something forbidden” to “kids use drugs from a desire to harm themselves” to “heroin addiction begins in elementary schools,” it is a wonder that parents were willing to risk sending their children to school at all.

My rating: 7/10, finished 10/25/23 (3883).

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