1966-03-24

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South Faruiingdale Public Library
M e r r i t t Road
Farmingdale, N. Y.
AN OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF FARMINGDALE
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Vol. 3 No. 31
SERVING GREATER FARMINGDALE, BETHPAGE & MELVILLE
Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735 Thursday, March 2 4 , 1966
IS THERE A FARMINGDALE
NARCOTICS PROBLEM ? Does Farmingdale have a narcotics problem ?
The question was asked of School District # 22 officials,
several physicians and the Nassau County Narcotics Squad
by the Farmingdale Observer this week.
In light of apprehensions of several Long Island teenagers in
recent weeks, The Observer posed the question to a school
officials who stated that there were no known instances of
narcotics addictioni in the Farmingdale School District.
According to Captain James Henderson, Chief of the Nar­cotics
Squad of the Nassau County Police Department, out of
62 a r r e s t : *-;• NT^ ss^" County in 1966 five v e r e in Farmingdale
and out of a total of 174 a r r e s t s in Nassau County in 1965,
one was in Farmingdale- However narcotics addiction is a
problem thinly spread throughout Nassau County and no area
is really immune. Henderson was quick to add that the problem
was not in the school system but with drop outs.
Because police records do not show large numbers of ad­dicts
in anyone community does not mean that that area is free
of the problem. The possibility is always there a spokesman
for the police told the OBSERVER.
Dr. Albert N. Meyerstein, District # 22 School Physician when
asked whether there was a narcotics problem in the school
system stated that there was none to his knowledge. Meyer-steia
attended the confer Narcotics Addiciton at C. W.
Post College last Saturday where several known addicts who
were masked gave their views.
At that meeting Dr. Meyer- " Physicians are trained to
stein delivered the following re- base their diagnosis on facts,
marks as one of the participants: Because I don't believe that the
newspaper stories told to us
lately are facts, I cannot ac­cept
their diagnosis of a nar-
Proclaiming Byelorussian Day, in recognition of a country which had its
indendence from Russia for only three months in March, 1918, is County
Executive Eugene H. Nickerson who designated the short- lived March 25
Independence Day anniversary date as Byelorussian Day. Pictured 1. to r . are
members of the Long Island Chapter of the Byelorussian- American Associ­ation,
Borys Daniluk of Floral Park, George Kosciukiewicz of Sea ford,
Nickerson and Constantine Worobey of Farmingdale.
cotic epidemic contaminating
Long Island. I also cannot be­lieve
that the showing of a scare
film accompanied by a police cap­tain's
talk will deter especially
those youngsters from using
drugs who believe the police to
be their arch enemies. Just the
opposite, the film showing the
use of the needle will call their
attention to a pernicious kick that
had evaded their inventive think­ing
until now. I heard of at least
two statements of high school
students, one of our own school,
the other one of a neighboring
school district, who asked un-provokedly:
" What do you like
to get with this campaign? More
addicts?" The California Youth
Authorities believe that wide
publicity given to the practice has
increased, rather than decreased
the incidence of gluesniffing. The
United Nations Commission on
Narcotic Drugs states in a
recommendation to its Economic
and Social Council that in coun­tries
where addiction is sporadic-such
propaganda in schools and
other direct propaganda would
be definitely dangerous. And how
far did we get with our campaign
against cigarette smoking, a
campaign that had been organized
by health educators of first
rank?"
•' Such a noisy crusade as that
recently undertaken by news­papers
and police, although it
may originate from the most sin­cere
conviction, can only be com­pared
with the doings of a pyro-maniac
who after setting a fire
returns to enjoy the spectacle
of the conflagration. Only, we
don't enjoy reading of a few more
youngsters' arrest who were
tempted by the clamor. Why does
the police not reveal the number
of youngsters apprehended as ad
diets during the last three-months,
of youngsters proven to
be addicted to heroine or pheno-barbiturates,
not only found in
the possession of a few mari­huana
cigarettes or a few bar­biturate
or benzedrine tablets?
Did these boys show needle marks
or thrombosed veins? Did they
suffer from withdrawal symp­toms
after their arrest? How
many of the 100,000 of Long Is­land's
adolescents were they?
Not that I approve of gluesnif­fing
or marihuana smoking, I
am also aware mat such mis­conduct
may be the first step
to using more dangerous drugs.
But, who in our area are the
youngsters looking for kicks and
who are in danger to proceed
to the use of heavier drugs? They
are the ones who don't see any
aim in their lives, the ones who
hate school, unless they had al­ready
dropped out of it, the ones
who answer the question concern­ing
their future intentions and
plans always with: " I don't
know." Or, at the other hand,
they are those who due to their
social rank have been able to
taste prematurely almost every
/. est that our civilization has to
offer. Preaching comes too late
for them. Their deviant behavior
should have been made then to
change it. Prevention is the best
remedy against drug addiction, as
it is against every disease, not
lecturing. May I propose a few
more preventive measures?"
" An interested teacher can do
a lot to compensate for lack of
parental love and understanding.
Poverty can be mitigated by eco­nomical
assistance. Remedial aid
should be obtainable to the non-reader
or the speech- handi­capped
before he become the fool
of his class. A work- study pro-
(( onlinued on Page 12)
Officials Have Questions Re Water Authority Bill
Psga 9