State Panel to Seek Teen-Age Drug Use Plan

A 23-member commission was named Monday by state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp to find the “ideal” program for combatting the problem of drug and alcohol abuse among California teen-agers.

The battle “must start before experimentation with drugs and alcohol begins,” Van de Kamp said during a news conference at Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood. He noted that such experimentation begins in California “at a shockingly early age.”

More than 62% of the state’s high school students have tried some form of drugs by the time they graduate and teen-age drunk driving “has reached epidemic proportions,” he said.

In San Diego and Orange counties, Van de Kamp said, studies indicate that two-thirds of the children have tried alcohol by the time they are 10 years old. One fourth of the seventh-graders have already tried marijuana.

Urgency Cited

“We must reach those kids right now,” he said, “or make room for them in our jails and detox centers a decade from now.”

Prof. Rodney Skager, dean of the UCLA education department, is being asked to conduct a survey of drug and alcohol use among California’s young people, Van de Kamp said. The project will survey 8,000 students at a cost of $60,000.

Heading the commission will be the Rev. Thomas Kilgore of the Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles. The group includes educators, religious leaders, criminal justice professionals and others. Among the members will be former professional football player Kermit Alexander. Several members of his family were killed last year in a drug-retaliation raid by gang members who had the wrong address.

The commission is to report to Van de Kamp, the governor and the Legislature by April 30, offering specific suggestions on the effectiveness of programs and possible improvements in public and private efforts.

Van de Kamp also announced the start of his program in San Francisco and San Diego appearances.