“ NARCOTICS: A CHALLENGE TO YOUTH ” 1956 DRUG SCARE FILM FOR TEACHERS XD46654

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This 1956 color educational film sponsored and distributed by the Los Angeles-based Narcotic Educational Foundation of America and directed by Gilbert Lasky with financial assistance of the Woman’s Relief Corps targets teachers as well as junior and senior high school students in the war on drugs. Narcotics are classified and effects of opiates, stimulants, and barbiturates are summarized and dramatized (TRT: 23:32).

Opening titles: “The Narcotic Education Foundation of America Presents, Narcotics, A Challenge to Youth, Narrated by Lowell Thomas” (0:09). A classroom of adolescent children at Brethren High in Paramount, California. The teacher stares vacantly as students work. A clock (0:27). The teacher picks up a memo from his desk and reads. The school bell rings (1:25). Class dismissed. One male student lags behind and hands in a paper with a sloppy gesture (1:55). School hallways. The teacher visits a library, thumbs a small book (2:31). A still photo of a poppy plant. A graph: “Morphine” shows vials of the drug in sulphate, tab, and cube form (2:52). “Heroin” with full vials of the brownish substance marked “Mexican, caps, bindles” (3:13). A row of five pills: “Pure or European” (3:35). A still image of a cannabis sativa plant. A series of vials containing marijuana in various forms: “Seeds, Rough, Manicured, Cigs, Roach” (3:37). Marijuana “joints” (4:05). A coca plant. Cocaine: “Sniffed or Injected.” A drug user’s “works,” with a spoon and syringe (4:12). A visual guide to “Hypnotic” and “Stimulant” pills and capsules provided by the Narcotic Educational Foundation of America shows a galaxy of multi-colored uppers and downers. Closeups on Nembutal, Seconal, etc. Narration mentions “goofballs” (4:36). The teacher leaves campus. Students recline on the school lawn (5:10). Scenes of urban life in Southern California. Pedestrians, automobiles. A man smokes on a highway overpass (5:32). Returning home, the boy passes by his concerned mother and father in a living room. He sits down on a bed uneasily. His mother visits (6:34). Overwhelmed, the young man responds with frustration, closing the door on his parents. He looks into a mirror (7:20). Two young delinquents jump or mug a pedestrian at dusk, then drive away. They smoke marijuana in a parked car. Narration mentions “pot, weed, grass, reefers.” The youths exhale luxuriantly (8:10). Two of the young men climb a staircase to meet a heroin dealer (9:48). The dealer prepares an “outfit” with a belt tourniquet, a bent spoon, and eyedropper. The young man receives a dose, then rushes to a nearby toilet to vomit (10:40). The young man, now changed, leans heavily on a door. He returns home to bed (12:42). Hooked, he returns to the smiling dealer (13:09). A drug deal is made on a sidewalk near a coin-operated scale (13:30). The young duo attempts auto theft, driving off in a two-toned convertible luxury car (13:46). Exterior: “La Brea Hospital.” The youths rob a doctor of his briefcase. They find a pill bottle inside (14:38). Back at the trap house, the youths encounter two other junkies, a white boy in glasses, a black boy who stares remotely (15:28). The tallest boy intimidates the young African American. The man in glasses nods off. A woman in a sweater and skirt arrives and “cooks up,” ties off, etc. (16:11). An undercover police bust nails the junkie duo. Their arms are inspected for track marks. Arrested (17:43). Jail. Mugshots. Cold turkey withdrawal in a jail cell (18:40). Out of prison, the young man walks, directionless, finds his addict companions (19:24). Working as a dealer on the streets. A closeup expressing turmoil (20:25). The teacher returns. Back at the classroom, students file in (20:51). End credits (22:28).

This classroom film starred Ronald Trujillo as the boy, Jim Raymond as the teacher, and Denis Robertson, Richard Holland as the wayward friends. It was shot by Albert E. Locher, with library music sourced from CBS and sound effects from MGM. Sgt. Frank Sweeney from the Narcotic Detail of the City of Vernon’s police department served as a consultant.


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