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FEBRUARY 15. 1972
Pop festival increased
drug traffic in Macon
"Four years ago there was
very little drug traffic in
Macon/' Sheriff’s Deputy Ray
Wilkes said at the wrap-up
session of the Drug Seminars
sponsored by the Middle
Georgia Council on Drugs,
Speaking at Mercer University
Wilkes emphasized that since
1970 and the Byron Pop Festival
drug traffic in the Macon area
has been accelerating at a
dangerous speed.
At present Macon supports
400 to 500 heroin addicts. At the
street price upwards of $7 a
“hit” (one dosage of heroin),
the addict’s, daily cost to
support his habit can run as
much as $28 to $100 a day. Since
addicts cannot support their
habit by legitimate jobs, they
turn to prostitution, theft, and
burglary to finance their habit.
Wilkes estimates that $300,000
a month must be raised
collectively by Macon addicts to
support the habit, and said that
the genera] increase in crime in
the area may be partly con-
tributable to the general in
crease in local heroin ad
diction. He noted that the
greatest heroin addiction
problem centers in the black
community, but said that the
problem is not limited only to
that sector. *
But what is Macbn doing to
combat this ever-increasing
problem? Dr. Robert S. Donner,
president of the Middle Georgia
Council on Drugs, stated that
the Council is a “totally coor
dinated program to combat
drug abuse in the community.”
Donner said the council is
composed of all organized
citizen's groups in Macon, in
cluding the Bibb County Board
of Education, the Bibb County-
Public Health Department, the
Junior League, and local law
enforcement agencies. 'Total
community involvement,”
Donner stressted, “is the only
way to effectively combat the
drug abuse problem.”
"Educational programs
designed to acquaint Macon
with the very real problems of
drug abuse and methods to
combat this abuse is a primary
function of the Middle Georgia
Council on Drugs,” Donner
said. An open forum sponsored
by the council provides an
opportunity for discussion and
problem-solving.
Miss Vivian Wilder, secretary
of the council and dii ector of the
Rent-a-Teen program, explained
that the Rent-a-Teen program is
designed to provide alternatives
to drugs for Macon's youth. By
providing opportunity for
legi’mate employment and by
helping youths to mix socially
and economically in the Macon
community, the Rent-a-Teen
program helps to keep young
people off the streets and out of
the influence of drug pushers.
Another form of community
involvement that has been
successful in Macon is the
Speakers Bureau sponsored by
the council. Participants in this
program include doctors,
lawyers, businessmen, and law
enforcement agents who
volunteer to speak at various
functions on the subject of drug
abuse.
Bill Stevens, president of the
Macon Toastmaster's Club and
director of the Speakers
Bureau, said that volunteers
use visual and sensory aids in
their talks to promote education
on the subject. “Education is
the only way to tell what hap
pens with drug abuse,” Stevens
said.
Bob Brenner, director of His
House on Mulberry Street, also
cooperates with the Middle
Georgia Council on Drugs. “His
House fills three primary
functions,” Brenner said. “It
serves as a sort of 'crisis center’
for runaways, it provides an
opportunity for youth in
volvement in the community,
and it provides a valuable
Christian community for Macon
youth.” His House, sponsored
by the United Methodist
Church, provides a 24 hour
telephone service for youth in
need of counseling, or simply
someone to talk to, as well as
other projects designed to give
youth another alternative to
drugs.
“Dope Stop”, sponsored by
the Macon Junior League holds
training session for school-age
youth to teach them to teach
other young people about the
dangers of drug abuse. A
spokesman for the “Dope Stop"
program said that sometimes a
young person will listen to an
adult.
The Methadone Treatment
Center is a combined venture of
the Medical Center of Central
V
Environmentalists
plan meeting here
At 6:00, Tuesday, February
1st, 1972, the first meeting of a
group of Mercer students who
are concerned about the en
vironment took place in room
314 of the Connell Student
Center. The group of ap
proximately 20, led by Martha
Ham, established as its purpose
the pooling of ecological in
terest on campus in order to
arouse concern from students
and faculty.
The group's first project will
be to recycle cans, bottles, and
newspapers that would
otherwise be thrown away. This
will be done by placing boxesin
all of the dorms as collection
points for the students. Plans
have also been made to expand
into other areas, su^h as
reducing the unused waste on
the campus, and starting a
program of public education
and activities to inform the
Macon community of the
group’s plans. Among ihe
suggestions brought up was a
newspaper drive for elemen
tary schools, activities for earth
day and helping Macon with its -
landfill problem.
The group will meet again on
Tuesday, February 15th. at
6:00, in room 314 of the student
center. All those who wish to
help are encouraged to attend.
the mercer cluster
Ecology group
organizes here
Chaplain
to speak
Do military chaplains serve
God or the State?
That question, which has
roots in a Christian’s attitude
towards war, will be the subject
of the Mercer Worship Service
speaker, Dr. A. Ray Appelquist,
on February 18th.
He is executive secretary of
the General Commission on
Chaplains and Armed Forces
Personnel, in Washington, D.C.
His is a civilian post, heading a
commission representing some
41 religious bodies with over 60
million members.
Dr. Appelquist is a Baptist,
and a graduate of Roosevelt
University in Chicago, and
Bethel Theological Seminary
(Dr. Otto’s alma mater) in St.
Paul, Minnesota.
A student and writer on the
chaplaincy and church-state
relations, he has served a
number of civilian pastorates in
the north and two tours as an
army chaplain in Germany,
Korea, and the U.S.A.
The service, as usual, will be
at 10:10a.m. Friday in the Ware
Recital Hall.
Sergeant Pope
enlists again
Sergeant First Class Ben
jamin Pope, a ROTC instructor
at Mercer University, is finding
that re-enlisting in the U.S.
Army comes easier every time.
Middle Georgians concerned
about the state’s environment
and looking for a way to help
are invited to join the Macon
Chapter of the Georgia Con
servancy which is now being
formed.
Everyone, Conservancy
members and non-members
alike, is invited to attend an
organizational meeting at 7:30
p.m. February 16 in the science
building of Mercer University.
Dr. Eugene Odum, director of
the Institute of Ecology at the
University of Georgia and a
nationally recognized authority
on the environment, will be
principal speaker.
Membership in the Con
servancy automatically entitles
a person to membership in the
Macon chapter. Anyone who is
not a member may join both the
state and the local organization
at the meeting.
Officers will be elected and
plans will be made for local
Mercer University President
Rufus C. Harris announced the
appointment of Dr. Stonewall C.
King as chairman of the newly-
created Clinical Pharmacy
Department at Mercer
University’s Southern School of
Pharmacy in Atlanta.
Dean Oliver M. Littlejohn
said, “The Southern School of
Pharmacy is pleased to enlarge
its curriculum by establishing
the Clinical Pharmacy
Department which will direct
the professional education of
pharmacy students through
coordinated- training in
hospitals, nursing homes, and
community pharmacies
throughout Atlanta."
The Southern School of
Pharmacy will move into a new
$2.2 million facility in April
adjacent to the Georgia Baptist
Hospital. The school will be the
first unit in a proposed $40
activities.
The Georgia Conservancy is a
citizens’ organization which has
fought and won a number of
legal battles for preservation of
the state’s natural en
vironment.
Its membership has grown to
approximately 6.000 since its
founding five years ago.
Dr. Odum was named
Georgia’s Scientist of the Year
in 1968 by the State Commission
on Science and Technology in
recognition of his contribution
to the field of ecology.
A professor at Georgia since
1940, he was a delegatee to the
first Atoms for Peace con
ference in Geneva in 1955 and
has also served on the Atomic
Energy Commission. He is
author of several college text
books on ecology.
He will be introduced by
Walter Mitchell, chairman of
the Georgia Conservancy and a
past president of the Atlanta
Chamber of Commerce.
million Atlanta Medical Center.
King was an assistant
professor of pharmacy at the
University of Georgia before
coming to Mercer. He held a
joint appointment with the
University of Georgia Phar
macy School and the Institute of
Community and Area
Development in Athens.
A native of Calhoun, Ga.,
King received bachelor degrees
in chemistry from the
University of Georgia and in
pharmacy from Mercer
University. He earned his
Master of Science degree from
the University of Maryland and
his Doctor of Pharmacy degree
from the University of Michigan
in 1968. He completed his
Certificate of Residency at
Johns Hopkins Hospital in
Baltimore.
King is a member of the
Stonewall King
fills new position
It should. He has repeated the
oath of enlistment six times in
the past 20 years.
Lt. Col. Norman E. Andrie,
commander of the ROTC unit,
conducted the swearing in
ceremony.
Since joining the army in 1951,
Pope's assignments have in
cluded service in the Korean
Conflict and the Republic of
Vietnam. He was assigned to
the ROTC department at
Sewanee Military Academy in
Tennessee before coming to
Mercer in October, 1971.
His awards include the Silver
Star (the nation’s third highest
award for valor), five Bronze
Stars, the Air Medal, the Purple
Heart and the Combat In
fantryman’s Badge with star.
He and his wife, Patsy, live on
Riverview Road in Macon.
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