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Press, 26 August 1977, Page 2

This life-size, realisticlooking plastic cannabis plant, imported from the United States, Is among the more unusual items in Ray Comfort’s new Drug Education Shop, which opens today. The shop, which is situate 1 downstairs at 244 High Street, contains books, tapes, educational aids, and anti-drug posters and T-shirts as well as general information about drugs. It is aimed at young people who want to learn the facts about narcotics, and at parents, who want to understand more about the drug problem, especially with regard to the effect on family life. Mr Comfort, a young

Christchurch leatherware businessman, has been organising a campaign against narcotics for several months, and the shop is the result of his efforts. “The bookshop is not a rehabilitation centre or counselling centre for drug addicts," Mr Comfort said yesterday. “If any drug addicts come in to the shop for help, they will be sent straight to the National Society for Alcoholism and Drug Dependency. The shop is purely for education, information, and increased public understanding." he said. The shop — the first of its kind in Christchurch — is only one aspect of Mr Comfort’s anti-drug abuse activities.

In May, he published a paperback called “My Friends are Dying,” which has sold well in Christchurch and other centres, and which was a greatly expanded version of the original booklet he published several months earlier with the same title.

Mr Comfort also spends some time speaking at various community organisations, talking about drug abuse. From his experience of speaking in public, he said, he had found that only about 15 per cent of people knew what a cannabis plant looked like. It was for this reason that he had imported 10 plastic cannabis plants, as well as a drug-education kitset, he said.