Bethpage-Tribune_1970-04-09

              Beifipage M f c *anr,
Island Trees Serving Bethpage - Plainview - Island Trees — Plainedge - Seaford
Vol. 4 No. 25
Old Bethpage
Thursday, April 9, 1970
DRUG TALK: State Supreme Court Justice Michael
D'Auria answers a question from a student after
^Monday's Mock Narcotics Trial at Bethpage High
S C h O O l . ' f f M i i R f i i i ' l Photo by D, CoQueUn
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Plan Ko
At Island Trees Site
Korvettes' 6th suburban Long
Island department store will be
located in Island Trees at Nassau
Mall, the first regional shopping
center to be built in 1.5-million-population
Nassau County since
. 1956 and JJie first in the county t o*
be planned as an. all-weather
climatized mall.
The 170,000 square foot store
will be one of the two anchor
stores in Nassau Mall, the
Island's first twin-level enclosed-mall
shopping center. This store
will be Korvettes' first Long
Island unit in a regional shopping
center.
Nassau Mall developer Sid
Feldman said he is considering
four major metropolitan New
York and out-of-town retail
organizations for the second
department store at the 44-acre
regional center. Other proposals
for the Mall's second big store
still are being accepted, since no
final selection has been made.
Construction will begin later this
year at the regional shopping hub
'which will be located on Hemp­stead
Turnpike, just west of
Wantagh Avenue.
The two-story $40 million retail
complex will have 900,000 square
feet of selling space. Pathmark
already has signed for a maxi­mum
of 60,000 square 5 feet,
making its Nassau Mall outlet
Long Island's largest super­market.
Nassau Mall's developer
estimates that the county's
newest regional shopping center
will have in its trading area about
642,000 Nassau and Suffolk resi­dents
whose homes are within a
15 to 20 minute drive of the Island
Trees site.
These shoppers will come from
eastern Hempstead Town, the
nation's most populous township;
Oyster Bay Town; North Hemp­stead
Town; and Babylon Town
in western Suffolk County.
10c per copy
Mock Narcotics Trial
Probes Heroin Threat
Communities in the Mall's
trading area^includfeLevittown,
Bethpage, Plainedge, East
Meadow, Massapequa, South
Westbury, Merrick, Farming-dale,
Wantagh, Seaford, North
Bellmore, and Amityville.
Feldman is carrying out the
twin-tier theme -at Nassau Mall
with a number of trendsetting
innovations. All-weather double-deck
parking will accommodate
approximately 5,000 cars. The
lower parking tier will feature
illumination devices to provide
daylight brightness levels at all'
times.
An internal minibus service
will carry shoppers from their
cars to each entrance, and
covered walkways to the mall
will be available for customers
who would rather not ride.
Nassau Mall will have a day
care denter designed to attract
shoppers and to aid in recruiting
women to fill an anticipated 2,000
jobs generated by Korvette, the
second anchor store, and satellite
shops. The shopping complex will
serve as a "village green" with a
number of meeting and exhibi­tion
'rooms available free to
community and other non-profit
groups.
Morris Lapidus Associates
(Manhattan) is the architect for
Nassau Mall.
Correction
Editor note:. Last week's lead
article incorrectly described
Joseph Krol as the "spokesman"
for a group of taxpayers
protesting an abortive exchange
program with Wyandanch. Krol
was neither the official nor
unofficial spokesman; he spoke
only for himself.
We regret any embarrassment
this mistake may have caused.-
A mock trial of a "heroin
pusher" was held Monday night
in the auditorium of the Bethpage
High School.
State Supreme Court Justice
Michael D'Auria and
representatives of the County
District Attorney's office joined
local students and adults in
presenting the trial, which
utilized the actual testimony of a
heroin conviction.
Although the trial probably lost
some dramatic punch because it
was unrehearsed, a few points
seemed to score with the 200
students and 50 adults who at­tended.
;;|
(D'Auria explained that many
of the witnesses" had not
received scripts until that
evening)! .f^u^^^^ttL
. The most e f f e c t i v e s c e n e in the
play was the sentencing of the
defendant. When D!Auria
pronounced the sentence of 14 to
30 years for selling heroin, the
student reaction seemed to range
from shock &r a feeling that the
sentence was ."absurd".".
The judge added that the
original term had been 135 years.
Much of the presentation
centered upon D'Auria's
discussion of narcotics. „
Pointing out the "problem of
experts" who present con­tradictory
evidence, D'Auria
claimed "we don't really know
what's going on", especially
regarding marijuana, which
seems to effect people somewhat
differently .^
Not pretending to be,an expert
on biology, D'Auria based his
arguments against drugs -upon
years of representing users,,
dealers, and pushers in Nassau
County courts. This experience
seemed to convince him that
"harmless" pot can often lead to
heroin addiction.
D'Auria reasoned that a con­sistent
six month's use of
marijuana leads to a mental
yearning for being "stoned."
This psychological dependence
B.A.D.A. Nominates
The nominating committee of
B.A.D.A. (Bethpage Against
Drug Addiction) last night
selected a slate of officers and
directors to propose to the
membership for approval. The
slate will either be mailed to the
membership or given them the
night of the elections.
The committee also made a
suggestion for voting to the
organization's temporary
chairman, Lou crfan. They
suggested a majority vote, with
nominations allowed from the
floor. They also suggested that
only members be allowed to vote,
and that members be composed
of people who have etgher signed
up for B.A.D.A. or shown an bona
fide interest in working with the
group.
would often be intensified when
the "kicks" of smoking pot wear
off.
In the search for the "high" he
no longer gets from marijuana,
argued D'Auria; the smoker
would go on to hash-hish (similar
to marijuana, but several times
more potent and other, stronger
drugs. Many go all the way to
heroin, according to D'Auria.
Some students seemed to
question the "chain" from pot to
heroin. They expressed fears that
parents who find their children
smoking marijuana will consider
them as "bad off" as regular
heroin users.
A smaller number of students
disagreed with another ti.'Auria
^ajm/^jLhat; heroin addiction is
is sufficient to cause addiction.
And of those addicted, he added;
he had never known anyone
"cured" for more than two or
three years. He argued that,
sooner or later, the "clean" user
will need an injection.
During an informal discussion
that followed the meefing, one or
two students claimed personal
knowledge of people who were off
"H" for good. D'Auria responded
that in all his years of contact
with addicts, he had never met
one cured for more than two and
a half years.
The judge had earlier backed
up his belief in "no cure" by
citing statistics for the national
addict treatment center in
Lexington, Ky. According to
D'Auria, 98 out of 100 "cured"
addicts must return for treat­ment.
This does not mean that 2
out of 100 are "saved" - "Heaven
knows where they go", was the
way D'Auria put it.
Among the problems in com­batting
drug use that D'Auria
scored were profits and adult
example.
According to the judge, a trip
south of the border and back, plus
an $8 investment, may net the
enterprising dealer $6,000 worth
of marketable marijuana. A trip
to Turkey, "while more
dangerous", is even more
profitable: if the pusher cuts out
the middlemen, he can multiply
his $6,500 costs over 100 times,
D'Auria also attacked the adult
drug culture. "The country is on
pills", he noted: headache pills,
diet pills, tranquilizers,
stimulants.
Amphetamenes and bar­biturates
are among the pills in
many parental medicine chests.
create a sensation of "ups" and
"downs " tha t may lea ve a. person
entirely unaware of where he is
or what he is doing.
•D'Auria • report'ed one such >
incident. A Long Island girl, not
knowing where she was at, was
found dead on railroad tracks
near Bethpage. She had ap­parently
been sitting on the
tracks when a train hit her.
How did the trial come off? "It
was scary .. . especially the part
about heroin", said one girl.
Many found it interesting , while
one noted: "I'm glad the parents
are frying to do something, but I
think they're going about it the
wrong way . . . they're using the
scare tactic again."
Said D'Auria:
'The problem of narcotics is
going to ge$ worse . . . . if you just
reach one kid, it's worthwhile."
The trial was sponsored Jt>y
P.T.A. groups in Bethpage, along
with the local Italo-American
society.
ON TRIAL: "Defendent" Mark Cohen sits between a
representative of the D. A.'s office (1) and Mark Cohen,
a "witness" in the mock trial. Photo by D. Coquel.