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February, 1969 EDITORIALS 63 THE POT PROBLEM Most physicians in practice today went through college before marijuana smoking was seriously considered as an indoor sport and find it hard to think of Saturday night beer busts turning into pot parties. Perhaps physicians who came along in the Prohibition era can best appreciate the illicit aspect of this currently popular means of altering consciousness while at school. Whatever one's moral and pharmacological convictions, young people of the adventurous and impetuous sort who get involved with marijuana are mostly convinced that the medical profesion does not know whereof it speaks in regard to marijuana, and lumps it with other middle class hypocrisies that alcohol is widely used within the law, yet "grass" is associated with felony. In the current Journal Dr. Keeler speaks out on many of the questions concerning marijuana which plague everyone who deals with young people today. His candor and style are attractive, and whatever distaste we might have for the topic, we must be attentive to it or lose touch with those we want to help. Recently, the work of Weil and his associates at Harvard, who conducted controlled studies of marijuana effects, has gotten much attention in the lay press as well as in medical newspapers and magazines. One of the interesting aspects of their work was the difficulty they had in finding subjects who had not already tried marijuana. While it is hard to know if their sample is typical of young people everywhere, it does suggest that the practice is far more common than those of us over 30 imagine. If this is true, as seems likely, physicians should more actively support legitimate scientific efforts to characterize the effects of marijuana physiologically, which of course includes its effects on mental activity. Then we will be in a position to "tell it like it is," a legitimate demand on the part of society, which includes our rebellious youth. EXAMINATIONS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN It is generally accepted by physicians that all children should have a complete physical examination before they start their schooling. Certain inoculations are squired, but much more in regard to nutrition, condition of teeth, hearing and visual defects, and many other points relating to the health status should be known by the school and by the parents before the first enrollment in school. Many preschool children are accorded a thorough physical study, but quite a few, especially the underprivileged ones, are missed or have only a partial "check-up." A proposal has been made that all North Carolina children have a complete physical examination before they enter school, that this program be made mandatory—otherwise we may miss the children who need it the most. Equally important is the need for all children to have a psychological study just before they enter the first grade or kindergarten. It should be known at this time which children are mentally retarded, are gifted, are emotionally disturbed, or may have some special disability in reading, spelling, and writing. Speech disorders and brain damage should be diagnosed at this time if they have not been recognized before. It is taken for granted that hearing and visual defects will be diagnosed in the physical examination, but sometimes teachers or psychologists are the first to find evidence of such disorders. Concerning the number of children involved, authorities agree that almost 39c of all children are mentally retarded, about 6% have hearing and speech disorders, and close to 10% have some degree of specific reading disability. This last named disability is often called "learning disability," "dyslexia," or "minimal brain dysfunction." It is most important to know about all disabilities at the start of schooling and not wait until the child is in the fourth or fifth grade or even in high school before someone awakens to the fact that he has a disability. Usually by that time the child has become a behavior problem, a repeater, and a potential dropout. It has been said that we can implement the program for preschool physical exami-(Continued on page 69)
Object Description
Rating | |
Fixed Title * | NCHH-17: North Carolina Medical Journal [1940-Present] |
Document Title | North Carolina Medical Journal [1940-Present] |
Subject Topical Other | Public Health -- Periodicals.; Physicians -- North Carolina -- Directory.; Societies, Medical -- North Carolina -- Periodicals. |
Description | Includes Transactions of the Society, -1960; 1961- , Transactions issued separately, bound in.; Includes Transactions of the auxiliary to the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina and Proceedings of the North Carolina Public Health Association. Official organ of the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina, 1940-May 1972; of the North Carolina Medical Society, June 1972-. Vols. for 1940-May 1972 published by the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina; June 1972- by the North Carolina Medical Society. |
Contributor | Medical Society of the State of North Carolina. Transactions.; Medical Society of the State of North Carolina.; North Carolina Medical Society.; North Carolina Medical Society. Transactions.; North Carolina Public Health Association. Proceedings. |
Publisher | [Winston-Salem] : North Carolina Medical Society [etc.], 1940- |
Repository | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Health Sciences Library. |
Host | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Date | 1969 |
Identifier | NCHH-17-030 |
Form General | Periodicals |
Language | English |
Rights | This item is part of the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection. Some materials in the Collection are protected by U.S. copyright law. This item is presented by the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for research and educational purposes. It may not be republished or distributed without permission of the Health Sciences Library. |
Digital Collection | North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection |
Sponsor | The North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection is an open access publishing initiative of the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Financial support for the initiative was provided in part by a multi-year NC ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) digitization grant, awarded by the State Library of North Carolina, and funded through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). |
Volume Number | 30 |
Health Discipline | Medicine |
Digital Format | JPEG 2000 |
Print / Download PDF Version | http://archives.hsl.unc.edu/nchh/nchh-17/nchh-17-030.pdf |
Document Sort | all; nchh-17 |
Volume Link | http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/nchh/field/identi/searchterm/NCHH-17-030 |
Title Link | http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/nchh/field/documa/searchterm/NCHH-17 |
Catalog Record link | http://search.lib.unc.edu/search?R=UNCb1306322 |
Revision History | done |
Description
Fixed Title * | Page 63 |
Document Title | North Carolina Medical Journal [1940-Present] |
Subject Topical Other | Public Health -- Periodicals.; Physicians -- North Carolina -- Directory.; Societies, Medical -- North Carolina -- Periodicals. |
Description | Includes Transactions of the Society, -1960; 1961- , Transactions issued separately, bound in.; Includes Transactions of the auxiliary to the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina and Proceedings of the North Carolina Public Health Association. Official organ of the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina, 1940-May 1972; of the North Carolina Medical Society, June 1972-. Vols. for 1940-May 1972 published by the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina; June 1972- by the North Carolina Medical Society. |
Contributor | Medical Society of the State of North Carolina. Transactions.; Medical Society of the State of North Carolina.; North Carolina Medical Society.; North Carolina Medical Society. Transactions.; North Carolina Public Health Association. Proceedings. |
Publisher | [Winston-Salem] : North Carolina Medical Society [etc.], 1940- |
Repository | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Health Sciences Library. |
Host | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Date | 1969 |
Identifier | NCHH-17-030-0117 |
Form General | Periodicals |
Page Type | all; editorial |
Language | English |
Rights | This item is part of the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection. Some materials in the Collection are protected by U.S. copyright law. This item is presented by the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for research and educational purposes. It may not be republished or distributed without permission of the Health Sciences Library. |
Filename | ncarolinamed301969medi_0117.jp2 |
Digital Collection | North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection |
Sponsor | The North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection is an open access publishing initiative of the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Financial support for the initiative was provided in part by a multi-year NC ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) digitization grant, awarded by the State Library of North Carolina, and funded through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). |
Volume Number | 30 |
Issue Number | 2 |
Page Number | 63 |
Health Discipline | Medicine |
Full Text | February, 1969 EDITORIALS 63 THE POT PROBLEM Most physicians in practice today went through college before marijuana smoking was seriously considered as an indoor sport and find it hard to think of Saturday night beer busts turning into pot parties. Perhaps physicians who came along in the Prohibition era can best appreciate the illicit aspect of this currently popular means of altering consciousness while at school. Whatever one's moral and pharmacological convictions, young people of the adventurous and impetuous sort who get involved with marijuana are mostly convinced that the medical profesion does not know whereof it speaks in regard to marijuana, and lumps it with other middle class hypocrisies that alcohol is widely used within the law, yet "grass" is associated with felony. In the current Journal Dr. Keeler speaks out on many of the questions concerning marijuana which plague everyone who deals with young people today. His candor and style are attractive, and whatever distaste we might have for the topic, we must be attentive to it or lose touch with those we want to help. Recently, the work of Weil and his associates at Harvard, who conducted controlled studies of marijuana effects, has gotten much attention in the lay press as well as in medical newspapers and magazines. One of the interesting aspects of their work was the difficulty they had in finding subjects who had not already tried marijuana. While it is hard to know if their sample is typical of young people everywhere, it does suggest that the practice is far more common than those of us over 30 imagine. If this is true, as seems likely, physicians should more actively support legitimate scientific efforts to characterize the effects of marijuana physiologically, which of course includes its effects on mental activity. Then we will be in a position to "tell it like it is" a legitimate demand on the part of society, which includes our rebellious youth. EXAMINATIONS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN It is generally accepted by physicians that all children should have a complete physical examination before they start their schooling. Certain inoculations are squired, but much more in regard to nutrition, condition of teeth, hearing and visual defects, and many other points relating to the health status should be known by the school and by the parents before the first enrollment in school. Many preschool children are accorded a thorough physical study, but quite a few, especially the underprivileged ones, are missed or have only a partial "check-up." A proposal has been made that all North Carolina children have a complete physical examination before they enter school, that this program be made mandatory—otherwise we may miss the children who need it the most. Equally important is the need for all children to have a psychological study just before they enter the first grade or kindergarten. It should be known at this time which children are mentally retarded, are gifted, are emotionally disturbed, or may have some special disability in reading, spelling, and writing. Speech disorders and brain damage should be diagnosed at this time if they have not been recognized before. It is taken for granted that hearing and visual defects will be diagnosed in the physical examination, but sometimes teachers or psychologists are the first to find evidence of such disorders. Concerning the number of children involved, authorities agree that almost 39c of all children are mentally retarded, about 6% have hearing and speech disorders, and close to 10% have some degree of specific reading disability. This last named disability is often called "learning disability" "dyslexia" or "minimal brain dysfunction." It is most important to know about all disabilities at the start of schooling and not wait until the child is in the fourth or fifth grade or even in high school before someone awakens to the fact that he has a disability. Usually by that time the child has become a behavior problem, a repeater, and a potential dropout. It has been said that we can implement the program for preschool physical exami-(Continued on page 69) |
Digital Format | JPEG 2000 |
Print / Download PDF Version | http://archives.hsl.unc.edu/nchh/nchh-17/nchh-17-030.pdf |
Document Sort | all; nchh-17 |
Volume Link | http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/nchh/field/identi/searchterm/NCHH-17-030 |
Title Link | http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/nchh/field/documa/searchterm/NCHH-17 |
Catalog Record link | http://search.lib.unc.edu/search?R=UNCb1306322 |
Revision History | done |
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