Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1988)
3 age State/Local The Battalion Thursday, Nov. 17, 1988 Page 3 It ■ester of! all sitii [rades i Smuggling awareness program asks public’s help in war on drugs e oppo S -H quesiii aw enforcement alone. aalswoiil John P. McDermott, public affairs teneMei )ffi cer w hh the United States Cus toms Service, said the Customs Serv- ce has created a Drug Smuggling Awareness Program to stimulate awareness of drug smuggling along the southwestern border of the nited States. de said, ■, pays i - g sauce, ,UI 8cM ght Tue tended arked s his hit 5 posit® was ki -nesses st ng-tirae ared to l tal- de must! ice l sav ioodsdcp to rest By Juliette Rizzo Staff Writer The war on drugs is not a job for In the lecture series “Drugs: A Modern Dilemma,” sponsored by MSC Political Forum, McDermott spoke about fighting the flow of drugs across our nation’s borders. Smugglers will do anything to bring in a profit, he said. “Smugglers will bring in illegal drugs anywhere they can find a hole incur defense,” he said. “It is our re sponsibility to prevent smuggling.” Today, Customs means many things to many people, he added. “For the tourist, we are the people in blue who check baggage at the air port,” he said. “To the international drug trafficker, we are the enemy who endangers drugs. To the ship captains or captains of other vessels, we are the experts who determine whether their shipment of pre-Co lombian art has been legally im ported into the country.” As a law enforcement agency, the Customs Service now serves 300 ports of entry into the United States. They maintain a constant watch over all U.S. land and sea borders. To counter the threat of smug gling, the Service monitors border areas using extensive air and land surveillance programs. The surveillance operation along the southwestern U.S. border is known as Operation Alliance. Six aerostats are strategically positioned to detect low flying aircraft. The bal loons contain the most sophisticated radar systems available. McDermott said the area is heavilv monitored, because it is through this area that one-third of all cocaine, marijuana and heroine is smuggled into the United States. Twenty seven percent of worldwide smuggling ac tion takes place near the U.S.-Mex ico border, he said. The Marine Air Force Base in California also installed a hew radar system that can monitor all air traffic from San Diego to Brownsville. It is so sophisticated that it can deter mine the difference between com mercial, military, private and law en forcement planes, he said. , McDermott said monitoring drug smuggling is “like a football game where we put in the defense and they attack it.” He said that for the United States to defend against this attack, the Customs Service must make citizens more aware of illegal smuggling. “We are calling upon each citizen to give us a hand,” he said. “By re porting suspicious actions and peo ple to Customs we can plug our gap in defense.” Citizens who become aware of any suspicious activity that might be smuggling-related can call 1-800- BE-ALERT 24 hours a day. Customs will pay cash rewards for any infor mation leading to the arrest of a smuggler or the seizure of illegal substances. Sources who provide in formation will remain completely anonymous. 27 seizures of illegal substances have resulted from more than 8,000 phone calls, he said. One such call led to the confiscation of 1,200 pounds of cocaine. McDermott said he thinks the Drug Smuggling Awareness Pro gram has been successful so far. “If we cooperate and share infor mation,” he said, “we can turn from losing the war on drugs to winning it. We can seal off the air and force smugglers down to the ground where we can deal with them.” Local hospital encourages \sniokeouL - aging: : ated tiai McDok n on a se SlOOaa t a night iiRS: Pig e stories ^ftera get the ’hat arei ■ve to ext is telling story. mior jom for The 1 By Denise Thompson Staff Writer The walking cigarette butt at Hu mana Hospital today may raise a few eyebrows, but the costume is meant to encourage smokers to quit the habit as part of The Great American Smokeout. The employee disguised as a ciga rette is only part of the hospital’s “Nip it in the Butt” campaign. The main goal of the campaign is to keep employees cigarette-free for the day, and possibly forever, Nick Ander son, a public relations intern at Hu mana, said. “Even though hospital employees know smoking is bad for them, there is a vast number of people in the hospital who smoke,” Anderson said. “And this is one of the first places we need to stop it, because we’re a role model for health care.” fju.'.... .u'J Ui.. Humana is sponsoring three other activities to promote the Smo- Great American I i SMOKEOUT AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY wmm&m keout. A treasure hunt is the main event. “During the treasure hunt, people will turn in their cigarettes in ex change for a treasure map and clues,” Anderson said. “For exam ple, they take the map and one of the clues could be, ‘You’ll breathe easier at this point,’ and that would mean that they follow the map to respiratory therapy.” After successfully completing the treasure hunt, participants will be treated to a reception that will in clude a drawing for prizes. “After the treasure hunt, they’ll go to the reception where we’ll serve them cold turkey sandwiches and drinks,” he said. “Also, we’ll draw names from a lottery made up of people who have successfully com pleted the treasure hunt and suc cessfully refrained from smoking to see who wins the prizes.” The hospital also is sponsoring an Adopt-A-Smoker program. Non smoking hospital employees will “a- dopt” for the day an employee who smokes. The adopters provide smokers the moral support needed to refrain from smoking during the Smokeout, Anderson said. “The adopters are supposed to do anything they can to keep their part ners from smoking,” he said. “They can provide little toys, or do some thing like handcuff them some where to keep them from smoking.” Humana also is sponsoring a pro gram for babies who are born today, Anderson said. “We are going to be giving all newborns in the hospital today a T- shirt that says, ‘I was born a non- smoker,’ ” he said. Drug authority says alcohol most abused drug in United States By Sharon Maberry Staff Writer Alcohol is the most widely- abused drug in America, a spokesman for the Center for Drug Prevention and Education at A&M said Wednesday. “Alcohol is, by far, the most damage-causing and expensive mood-altering drug in the coun try,” Dr. Dennis Reardon said. His speech was part of the E.L. Miller’s Lecture Series about “Drugs: The Modern Dilemma,” sponsored by MSC Political Fo rum. “Let there be no mistake,” Reardon said. “Alcohol is a drug.” Three times as many alcohol abusers than drug abusers are ad mitted to state-supported treat ment centers, Reardon said. Less than 10 percent of the people who drink consume 50 percent of the alcohol produced in the United States. Although alcohol is the most abused drug, other drugs are se verely abused, he said. Mari juana, a “soft” drug, has been tried at least once by 33 percent of the American population older than 12, he said, and 10 percent of the population over age 12 has used it within the last 30 days. Cocaine, a “hard” drug, has been tried at least once by 12 per cent of Americans, and 3 percent report themselves as current us ers, he said. Drug abuse has a direct impact on all Americans. “Each one of us pays about $1,000 annually for people suf fering from alcohol and drug abuse,” he said. In 1987, drug re habilitation cost the United States $201 billion. Signs of drug abuse include mood changes, irritability, lack of motivation and denial of a drug problem, Reardon said. The first step to help someone with a drug abuse problem is to get information from a profes sional, he said. “That’s what the Center for Drug Prevention and Education is here for,” he said. Reardon listed other ways to help drug abusers: • Show concern for them and be involved. • Don’t challenge or accuse them, but let them know how their behavior affects others. It might even be necessary to avoid them, he said, especially when they are doing drugs. 2 A&M students assaulted in CS Two Texas A&M students were sexually assaulted in their College Station apartment early Tuesday morning by an unknown attacker. The attacker, who reportedly had a gun, assaulted the women at about 3:30 a.m. in the Brownstone apart ment complex. College Station Police officers were dispatched to the the apart ments at about 4 a.m. after receiving a report of a screaming woman be ing chased by a male with a gun. The officers discovered that the attacker had entered the apartment and assaulted the woman. The students were taken to Hu mana Hospital in College Station. A police spokesman said the at tacker was described as a 6-foot tall black man weighing 180 to 200 pounds. He is 25 to 30 years old and was wearing a blue, black and gray flan nel shirt and dark pants. ig when i >g vice pi: ^ be a li tor the p: ough. \li the nun! been oi s youngs tunity toi current i 'emed 1 'd timet: personi readyh ante hut onsibilm should I; isteadoft reasons - ' anted ss: adow hi g in the' ” “He’s I : ds thee ntry.” lose Qut into thet i instead 'iguringt tgh the: pes as p. f, I hopt are thet is. nior join Aranda atlit m: fern Just their signatuie. It’s never been difficult for students to con vince their parents of the need for a Macintosh® computer at school. Persuading them to write the check, however, is another thing altogether. Which is why Apple created the Student Loan- to-Own Program. An ingenious loan program that makes buying a Macintosh as easy as using one. Simply pick up an application at the location listed below, or call 800-831-LOAN. All your parents need to do is fill it out, sign it, and send it. If they qualify, they’ll receive a check for you in just a few weeks. There’s no collateral. No need to prove finan cial hardship. No application fee. Best of all, the loan payments can be spread over as many as 10 years. Which gives you and your parents plenty of time to decide just who pays for it all. IntroducingApple’s Student Loan-to-uwn Program MicroComputerCenter ComputerSaks am/Supplies jlggggggjUggg^glgjg^* ©1988 Apple Computer, Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.