A 66-page booklet called "How Parents Can Help Children Live Marijuana Free," was published earlier this year by the Salt Lake Education Foundation. The pamphlet features a forward by Utah Senator and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Orrin Hatch. Included in the book is a list of warning signs for parents to be aware of which might indicate that their child is a marijuana user.
In the forward, Hatch urges parents to "carefully study this book... and look for the warning signs of any children who are using marijuana or drugs of any kind."
Among the "warning signs" of marijuana use, the book lists "excessive preoccupation with social causes, race relations, environmental issues, etc."
Feminism might also be suspect, as the pamphlet, on page 51, expresses longing for those happy days of yore when "teenage sons helped their fathers work the family farm" and "teenage girls helped prepare family meals, sew clothes and care for younger siblings."
The booklet was distributed to parents of children in the Salt Lake City school district.
A spokesman for Senator Hatch's office in Washington told The Week Online that Walt Plum, one of the book's co- authors, was an old friend of the Senator's who had asked him to write the forward which appeared in the format of a "letter to parents." Hatch's office could not confirm whether or not Hatch had actually read the pamphlet.
republished from The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #63 -- October 16, 1998
A Publication of the Drug Reform Coordination Network
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[posted October 18, 1998]
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