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By MARK JOHNSONDaily Report SUM WriterONTARIO-UPLAND -What and why is WEDAC?WEDAC is the West EndDrug Abuse Control Coordinating Council.It exists because the West End has a drug problem — or rather, many individualdrug problems.The problem here is nobetter or no worse than in other parts of the country — but it is here.” said Robert Smith, WEDAC chairman. Last year one local agency had 18,000 referrals, mostly of drug-related cases. That is an indication that we have a problem.WEDAC was conceived Nov. 18, 1970. when Ruben S. Ayala, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, called a meeting of community leaders in the West End to discuss local drug abuse problems.The group concluded that the West End needed an organization to coordinate the activities of various local druc abuse aucm .lt;WEDACwas formed, with Paul Smythe of Reach Out West End as its first chairman, and a series of meetings weremheld to form guidelines.The three main goals of thegroup were determined to be:— Surveying active drug abuse control and education programs already in existence to be aware of what is being done and what is not.— Secure funds for ongoing drug abuse programs.— Provide an atmospherefor periodic exchange of ideas and information to help create other drug abuse control groups in other cities andact as a drug abuse information center.W’EDAC is made ud of two groups: a board of directorsand a general membership. The general membership, is open to the public and meetsquarterly. The next meeting is scheduled fir Dec. 1 at‘7:30 p.m. in Ontario Library.The board of directors, consisting of representatives of local agencies interested indrug abuse control, forms policy and runs the day-to-day operation of the council. It meets the third Wednesday of each month in the Ontario Police Facilities Building at7 30 p.m. The next meeting will be Dec. 15.The council has been veryactive and the West End FreeClinic, which opened Nov. 4 in Montclair, is a product of WKDAC involvement.The council worked with local government and public health officials, private medical sources, law enforcement officials and drug abuse agencies such as Reach Out West End in establishing the free medical care facility.WEDAC also worked with the San Bernardino County Probation Department in organizing an in lieu program for youthful drug law violators. Under this program a first-time offender can enroll with his parents in a six-week counselling course instead of going to jail, with the emphasis on rehabiltation rather than punishment.The council is working with Avala to help establish a regional mathadonc treatment center for herion addicts. Methadone, while not a cure for addiction, allows an addict to live a normal life w ithout the agonies of addiction or need for recourse to crime to finance a heroin habitWEDAC has also been effective with other drug abuse control organizations. According to Reach Out West End Director A1 Hutton, one valuable WEDAC innovation is an experiment in exchanging staff members between Reach Out and the Montclair Community Service Center Free Clinic.‘‘This is an importantidea, siad Hutton. Theagencies involved in WEDAChave differences as well as similarities. If the staff of each agency has knowledge of how the other programs operate, it strengthens bothprograms.WEDAC has more than lived up to my concept of what a council for coorindat-i n g community problems should do, he added. “There is a free flow of discussion at the meetings, with differing points of view being expressed. Yet the discussion is always on a beneficial level. If WEDAC can maintain its present stance, it has a possibility of really being instrumental in bringing about necessary changes in attitudescoveries that the council has made in its research on the local drug abuse problem, although he says they are not unique to the West End.The ‘pre-risk’ level rightnow is under eight years of age, he says. That means that children in elementary school are exposed to and are experimenting with drugs.We find that it has be-on drug abuse causes and effects.Smith points out two dis-come the ‘thing’ among someelementary-level groups totake vitamin pills These are small red pills that do re semble vitamin pills, but are made up of a combination of various chemicals.PEGbattlesforteacher/nhti mmn
Newspaper Details
Ontario Daily Report
Ontario, California, US
Mon, Nov 22, 1971
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USA 02 Apr 2019
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