Alcohol Abuse, Drug Taking and Solvents. Police or Community Job?

Date01 July 1989
AuthorR.D. Woodall
Published date01 July 1989
DOI10.1177/0032258X8906200314
Subject MatterArticle
R.D. WOODALL BA, AR.Hist.Soc.
ALCOHOL
ABUSE,
DRUG
TAKING AND SOLVENTS.
POLICE OR COMMUNITY JOB?
Will the right tactics be used in the new drive against the abuse of alcohol,
drug taking and solvent sniffing or are we going to end up with another
only semi-effective campaign, because there are elements in society
which see these problems and the problem of A.I.D.S. as a police matter
only?
In my nearly 25 years as a secondary head I was lucky. The drug
problems I mainly came up against were those related to the legalised
drugs - the drinking
of
too much alcohol by young teenagers and cigarette
smoking. Theseproblemsreared their ugly heads usually at parties,discos
or when youngsters were on organized holidays. Then the youngsters felt
free
of
parental restraints.
Too often, when we took action, parents took the side
of
their sons or
daughters with the attitude
"Weren't
you young once yourself?"
Isuspect I did not get a drugs or solvent problem, largely because I
served as a head in areas where the bulk of the families
didn't
want
unwelcome publicity. They might defend their offspring to me. Yet in
fact, once aware
of
problems from us at school, they defended their own
in public to me but in practiceat home clamped down hard on the offending
youngsters. On one of the worst estates from which I drew children, there
were offences you did not commit. The parents might connive at their
children playing truant. Yet, when an elderly welfare officer calledat one
of the houses over truancy and the owner of the house turned on him with
his fists, three quarters of the street were out defending the welfare officer.
When a drunken lout fired the contents
of
apillarbox, containingthe bulk
of
the football pool entries that week, I suspect we knew the name
of
the
culprit in school before the police. The district had its standards.
I have not forgotten a small group
of
'old'
boys, each
of
whom had
opted to leave home and had taken in tow an
'old'
girl, working in a shop.
They did dabble with drugs and when "high" one night, they robbed the
shop where the girl worked. They were easily detected. As far as I was
concerned I only had toprovide reports on them. They have in fact settled
down now, the boys are married men with children, largely because the
parents took them in again. The girl, a real problem in her school days but
now a married woman with children, has frankly admitted to me that it
wasn't
police, her courtappearance,or the social workers who got her
off
drugs.
"It
were me dad. He were took ill. I went back home to help. And
he just talked me out of it. I couldn't hurt him any more. He
wasn't
that
bad you know to me.
He'
djust
expectedme tobe cleverlike my sisterand
Iwasn't. I did love him and I couldn't hurt him again".
254 July 1989

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