Show 4 4 10 By Jock Jones Chief The question that everyone asks and the one that I really dont don't have an answer for Cor is Is there a drug problem in inVernal inVernal inVernal Vernal And if so how bad is isit isit isit it As far Car as Im I'm concerned if one person in town is using drugs then we have a problem And it has the potential of oC being a bad one Any drug problem has to start somewhere with someone One spot of rot on one apple has the potential of oC spoiling the bushel If U one person is using drugs he is going to have an influence on others and they on others and andon on and on We should be concerned concerned concerned con con- with any amount of drug abuse abuse- no matter how small or insignificant In the last two months the Vernal City Police Department has arrested 15 persons for drug abuse Fifteen persons And that isn't counting the ones we know about but haven't arrested yet Nor does it include the ones we dont don't know about about- about and Im I'm sure there are many of oC those Most of our problems appear to be marijuana We have had some cases involving amphetamines and barbiturates barbiturates barbiturates bar bar- but marijuana seems to be the big thing Some of this is grown locally particularly during the summer months but for the most part it appears to come from Colorado or Salt Lake City Colorado is a drug center of sorts and a lot of the stuff sture probably goes through Vernal on its way to Salt Lake City and other cities in the West But enough of this manages to find its way down to the streets of V Vernal to nourish our hop-heads hop and keep our eyed bleary-eyed users users bleary Many of those who use grass justify their stupidity by saying that the smoking of pot is no worse than using alcohol Now how can you justify one vice by comparing it to another The lesser of two evils is still an evil And if we were to concede that the use of marijuana was no worse than the use of alcohol we ought to look at how bad our alcohol problem is We had 22 persons arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and public intoxication the past two months So yes we do have a drug problem in Vernal and yes its it's bad But at the same time we have other problems like booze which are just as bad and surely deserve our concern also |