Community Involvement in Prevention and Control of Drug Abuse

Abstract

This article emphasizes the need for community involvement in controlling drug abuse. It illustrates the type of New York State legislation that gave rise to the creation of Narcotic Guidance Councils. It furthermore states the goals of NGC's and the means through five committees to accomplish these goals. These committees include publicity, youth activities, counseling, school education programs, and adult education. In some greater depth, this article traces the development of the Cheektowaga Narcotics Guidance Council and a survey of more than three hundred and fifty NGC's operating in New York State to obtain information concerning specific programs in different locales. Key approaches of this new program involve 1) knowing the problem; 2) finding out what your town is already doing; 3) knowing what you are talking about; 4) keeping the media involved; 5) educating youth and adults; 6) involving young people; 7) setting objectives; and 8) evaluating the program.