Parents Filled In on Drug Slang

Germans who rave about “California sunshine” aren’t necessarily referring to warm weather on the U.S. Pacific Coast.

In the drug scene, the phrase denotes a trip with the mind-altering drug LSD.

To help German parents recognize conversational jargon that could be a tip-off of drug use by their children, a member of the Wuerzburg prosecutor’s office has written what he calls the country’s most complete lexicon of narcotics terminology.

The 300-page book defines more than 4,400 words and phrases from the drug scene gathered during Gerold Harfst’s 20 years of dealing with the problem among German youths and U.S. Army troops stationed in West Germany.

Because many of the slang words are English, he said, German parents, teachers and other adults who work with young people have a particularly difficult time fathoming drug-related jargon.

“Knowledge of drug jargon helps prevent narcotics crimes and offers parents the chance to discuss drug abuse with their children,” Harfst said.

“Parents should regard the book as a help in understanding the problem so that they don’t have to say when it’s too late, ‘If we only had an inkling,’ ” he said.

Drug abuse is a major problem in West Germany, where there are an estimated 50,000 heroin addicts. The Bonn government said 472 people died of drug abuse in 1983, up 25% from 1982.

Hashish is readily available throughout the country, and Bonn authorities warned last summer about a “cocaine wave” rolling toward Europe.

Harfst’s book suggests that authorities have sometimes failed to catch drug abusers because they did not understand esoteric terminology.