Feb. 5--It was pretty funny in the late 1960s when Los Angeles lawyer Harold Fine, as played by Peter Sellers, decided to drop out and become a hippie after getting zonked on a lovely young woman's "groovy" brownies.

The movie was "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!" and it is true that the real-life Toklas, Gertrude Stein's lover, published a recipe for marijuana-laced fudge, which, in popular culture, evolved into "hash brownies." (Hashish is a refined drug derived from marijuana plants.)

That movie was followed by ' 'Easy Rider," which also depicted the delights of pot, and the cannabis-saturated Woodstock music festival. Then came a prolonged series of Cheech and Chong comedy albums and movies with similar themes.

It was all good fun.

I tried marijuana in those days but did not care for it, so I'm sure I'd dislike other drugs, too. I also do not like the feeling of debility induced by more than a glass or two of booze. (I fumble around enough, as it is, without any supplemental influences.) Thirdly, I never gave a hang about peer pressure in any form. That combination of traits makes me one of the lucky ones.

The drug situation has become grim. The so-called war on drugs and the forbidden fruit appeal it fans provide fantastic profits for drug dealers and the authorities they bribe. It creates crime waves involving both the need to get money for drugs and turf wars among drug traffickers. It destroys lives and it cripples the economy with billions spent on incarcerations.

I often make the point that when cocaine was legal, it sold for less per pound than soap and few people wanted it, except for some who used it in a soft drink. (That's how Coca-Cola originally got its name.) Now, with the help of Prohibition II, it sells for more than gold.

In December, we learned about a student at Parkland High School who was accused of selling marijuana-laced brownies. As drug cases go, it was not sensational, but the amusing Alice B. Toklas brownies angle, I suppose, made it a big story.

There was nothing amusing about a conversation I had with the mother of another Parkland student. It was heartbreaking.

This is a decent, respected family. Over the years you may have read about the accomplishments of some of its members.

"This is not our life," the mother told me, her voice cracking with emotion. "I never thought this could happen to us. ... We are so devastated."

Her son, on his own, recognized he had a problem and finally sought help from a teacher at Parkland. He could not escape the hold that OxyContin had on him. (OxyContin, also known as "hillbilly heroin," is synthetic heroin made famous when Rush Limbaugh got caught trying to buy some.)

The woman contacted me because she has been stewing over the December story about the Parkland brownies and was desperate to get the word out that something sinister was going on at that school.

"I feel I just have to do something," she said. "The kids are telling me that Parkland is the drug market for the Lehigh Valley" and she wants to "put a spotlight on this. I'm so outraged that nobody seems to be doing anything."

The Morning Call, she said, should investigate the drug situation at Parkland and warn parents about it.

I passed along her request to an editor, but I doubt that the problem is any worse at Parkland than at many other schools.

She said her son wants to solve his problem but "he's expressing fear about going back [to Parkland] where people are doing the same thing. It's very available. … The kids all seem to have it [OxyContin]."

My heart went out to her, but I became a little callous when she said she was told her son has a "psychological addiction."

I do not believe in such psychobabble, designed to advance another beneficiary of the war on drugs -- the therapy industry. I told the mother I think people who use drugs do so because they like them, because they are tempted by the forbidden fruit aspect, and because they are weaklings who do whatever their peers want.

"That's how I feel," she said. "He says, 'You don't understand, Mom. ... Everybody [at school] is doing it.' He's right. I don't understand. I don't understand how you can say yes to the first one."

I am skeptical about what good any more "the sky is falling" stories about drugs in schools will do, If we want to dissuade kids from using drugs, we'd be better off telling them we don't care what they do. Instead of noisy hand-wringing, let's tell them we think drug abuse can be beneficial. It tends to cull defective elements out of the human herd so we can devote more resources to people who matter.

Can you see the wheels turning in youthful minds? It sounds callous, but in terms of results, it could not be any worse than the preachy approach we're taking now.

That approach is worse than stupid. It is tragic. It is destroying people, including a fine Upper Macungie Township family.

Notwithstanding my fondness for Peter Sellers, there is nothing funny about it.

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