Show Sheriffs Sheriff's Corner Parents Know I now the Drug Threat Threatt t The Child You Save May DC Be Your Own OwnBy By ARDEN W W. STEWART Uintah County Sheriff THIS WEEKS WEEK'S SUBJECT MORE BAD NEWS FOR SPEED USERS Last tast week we talked briefly about Injected injected In in- commonly called in the Jargon of the street Speed You'll recall that the effects of using this drug in this manner were very disturbing to say the least Now more bad news about Speed has come cOlUe to light On Thursday November 5 1970 it was reported by a Medical Center Center Center Cen Cen- ter team at Los Angeles that as many manyas as 20 per cent of the youths who shoot speed take it by injection may develop develop de de- de a blood vessel disease that has been fatal in about 30 per pel cent of cases detected to date late It seems to be indicated the disease kills by blocking blood vessels In vital organs such as kidneys and the heart This will be the first deadly disease of or the system that doctors have found a associated with drugs which are arc abused Speed is is as we have said n a form of amphetamine the pep pill drug Users Inject it to get a quicker higher response According to one doctor workIng workIng work work- Ing with the study persons who take amphetamines orally to control their appetite appetite ap ap- ap petite may possibly be In danger of acquiring the lethal blood vessel disease dis dis- dis ease ense There were eight doctors on the medical team which made the discovery discovery ery cry at use from the departments of medicine radiology and pathology Dr B. B B Philip Citron who headed the team has hns a report appearing in the November Novem Novem- bee ber 5 Issue of the New England Journal Journal Jour Jour- nal of Medicine In it he tells of extensive ex cx studies done on 14 patients four of them died and one Is now near death Eight of the 14 were males and six were wele females Most 1 of those who died succumbed to heart failure or kidney failure due to the blockage by scar tissue of blood vessels within those organs Autopsies sies showed vessels in the pancreas stomach stomach stomach sto sto- mach and small intestines also were severely affected It Is hoped that the discovery will hasten the removal from the market of amphetamines which reportedly reportedly reportedly re re- re- re have very little therapeutic value LSD is also suspected as cause of the same blood vessel disease One interesting case a woman patient patient pat pat- lent involved in the study had been taking tak ing log 30 pills a day originally prescribed ed to control her diet The dosage for that purpose is two pills a day It seems this is a startling example of how diet pills used under a doctors doctor's prescription tion in the beginning can get completely complete complete- ly out of or hand quite easily In my first article I mentioned that the purpose of these letters was not to pin the blame for the drug problem on anyone However however How how- ever one can hardly consider all available available avail avail- able information on the subject without coming to the conclusion that adults have been misusing drugs for many years now and have by so doing certainly certainly contributed to the spread and increase increase in in- crease of the practice Have you checked your medicine chest lately to see what dangerous drugs it may contain Do you know exactly what drugs you keep in the house hous and whether whether ther they are potentially dangerous in inthe inthe inthe the hands of children or young people How would you feel if one of your children children child child- ren became involved with the misuse of drugs and you found it all started with something he found in your medicine medicine medicine med med- chest We are discussing facts friends and considering all possibilities That is why some unpleasant subjects are likely to come up during our consideration of or A J. J c. c u. u H. H the national drug problem Be with me next week I think you'll find the subject of deep interest and if you are concerned about drugs I know your reading time will not be wasted J nu wt |