The State : ‘Just Say No’ Founder Quits

Joan Brann, the founder of the “Just Say No” anti-drug movement, has shut down the Oakland office and resigned from the national organization in a dispute with its new leaders. The discord started in February when W. W. Abbott, senior vice president of Procter & Gamble, became chairman of the Just Say No Foundation’s national board. Abbott declared the organization was about $600,000 in debt and needed more professional management than it was getting from Brann, the foundation’s national vice president, or from Tom Adams of Lafayette, the foundation’s president, who has since resigned. The board also decided it could no longer afford to underwrite the local “Just Say No” office in Oakland, where the anti-drug campaign originated.