N.C.W. Worried About Publicity On Drugs

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31967, 19 April 1969, Page 2

N.C.W. Worried About Publicity On Drugs

Concern about undue publicity of drugs and their use was expressed by the Christchurch branch of the National Council of WoI men this week.

Newspaper and television ! publicity concerning drugs j should be educational, and not . sensational, members decided. The subject was one of four considered by discussion groups at the monthly meeting. A recent programme on television which showed how to adminster some narcotics was criticised by several members, who felt that it would encourage some young people to experiment. Many members felt the publication of the names of drugs might encourage people to seek these produets. This also applied to a recent story in a newspaper in New Zealand, telling how young people in the United States had found they could get “Beks" from catnip. Although an article in “Canta," the University of Canterbury student newspaper, might have encouraged experiments, the names of drugs would not, because addicts knew what they wanted anyway, one woman said. Education Favoured

There was general feeling that education on the detrimental effects of drugs could do only good, and judicious talks to secondary school pupils were favoured. One discussion group decided that publicity on drugs stimulated undue curiosity. Consideration of lowering the legal drinking age and the voting age brought divided opinion. On one side, it was thought the drinking age should be lowered to 18 so that young people drinking in hotels would be “reasonably supervised’* instead of drinking in

flats and in cars as they did now.

On the other hand, if 18-year-oids were drinking in hotels illegally now. 16-year-olds might try it if the age was lowered. "Forbidden fruit" was the attraction, and it was difficult for a barman to judge a youth’s age. Not Responsible

If the legal age was lowered to 18, some boys and girls who were still at school would be drinking in hotels and voting, and It was felt they would not be responsible enough for this.

A change in age would also mean considerable work in the alteration of numerous legal documents. Members agreed that young people today were more mature than they were 20 years ago, but, if the age was to be lowered, the majority favoured 20 rather than 18 years. Lack of time and of encouragement, not enough education, and not being informed sufficiently on everyday affairs were reasons given for women not taking part in public affairs. Discussions revealed that, in spite of labour-saving devices in the home, women had plenty of work to do there, and help in the home was not

Country Girls’

Conference

The conference of the New Zealand Federation of Country Girls' Clubs will be held in Christchurch in June, when the organisation will celebrate its twenty-first anniversary.

The conference will be held in association with Young Farmers’ Clubs, says a report from the Christchurch district committee of the federation. Miss N. Hill, a South Island vice-president, was nominated at the meeting to stand for Dominion president, and Miss S. Mee, Christchurch district president, to stand as an executive member.

always forthcoming from husbands. Single women were often very busy with demanding careers. Many Too Busy “So many women belong to so many voluntary organisations and societies that they are already committed and too busy to take part in civic and national affairs,” said one member.

Women would take a major part in public affairs under pressure—in war time, for example—but there was often disapproval from the New Zealand men. “There, will, very shortly, come forward a very different type of girl who is self-reliant and much better equipped than present young mothers and middle-aged women," said j another member.