Page 4, The Herald, Tuesday, September 25, 197?

TERRACE/KITIMAT

daily herald

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EDITORIAL

Democracy has been called the worship of jackalls by jackasses.

lt is, however, the only form of

overnment we have at the moment.

errace and area residents will, moreover, have an opportunity to exercise their franchise Nov.17,

It is also sald that the smaller the Stakes in a contest the more vigorously and violently It is fought. in the smaller battles in life one can afford to fight to the finish because a complete less isn’t as necessary.

This Is a mayoralty year. Two potential candidates have already Started showing up at district council meetings, Gerry Duffus and Vic Jolliffe.

We can expect some excit ement this year as both the council’s handling of parks and one particular subdivision are

Ikely to questioned.

The thing to remember in the for- thcoming race that in spite of the In- vective, the direction Terrace is to take is at issue.

It may be of little concern to some, but

IKE PROPISED Pf FORAIBERTA MLAs

Leuceeo nause 10 474,478

a minimum wage law.”

“I'm all for paying the premier and MLAs whet they’re worth — unfortunately there's

Every year Steen An- dersen, a doctor on the Queen Charlotte Islands, has bia grim medcal views on the subject. of magle mushrooms tragically reinforced.

Dr. Andersen, who works in the Health and Human Resources Clinic in Masset, has,during his time on the Islands, treated hundreds of people who have had adverse reactions to Psilocybe

this is where we Ilve.

—

LETTERS TO ‘THE EDITOR

‘Open Letter to Frank Howard

Mr. Howard,

After llstening.to your interview on CFTK's P.M, program on Thursday September 13th, I felt I must write and point out to you and to the people of Skeena

riding a few facts, truthful : facts,

Quite some time before the Provincial Election in May of this year, Cyril Shelford who was at thet time Minister of Agriculture for the Province a B.C, was instrumental in securing for the Province and the People of B.C. and perhaps mare specifically the People of Skeena, as a git the Lakelse Hotapring complex-at that time Cyril mated what he would like to gee done there and what could be done with them. He advocated in part development of the area as a Recreation site both for the benefit of the local people and visitors. He also pointed out the possibility of Greenhouses being developed which could eventually help supply much @t the fresh produce which we now import. Cyril also taiked of a Convention Centre at Lekelse-thal ideo has been talked of in the past by Cyril and others, Such a centre would be of great value to the Pacific North Wert

1 heard you try to climb nto this bandwagon during the Election Campaign and was disgusted, and upon hearing you al it again, was appalled that you could insult the intelligence of the people of Skeena in auch a way. We know people have short memories as was

evidenced in the May

dections, both Provincially and Federally. We had you as Skeena representative Federally for seventeen years and 1 cannot rmember

anything of any moment happening through your dfors. We heard a lot during your Provinclal Election campaign about that surgical operation of yours but it could not, [ would think, keep you in capacitated for all of thoas

_seventeen years.

Resulting from Mrs. Campagnolos term in office we now have a Port Development on the way (Cyril worked on that too) and her efforts on behalf of the Native Peopla. We heard constantly of grants they received for their various projects, That brings to mind another thought, You Mr, Howard were hired by the previous N.D.P. Government at a fabulous salary to work for, I understood, the Indian People. It did not come up In the election campaign, you seemed more interested in a campaign of mad. Well no matter, your records of that dime arestill in Victoria-they did not run off if you did. It might be interesting to look into that period of time, however, I would suppose it is the Indian People you will have to explain to.

As [ said before, people have short memories, but hopefully, it will sink in that a Politician who goes around handing outa big Helloanda bandshake is not

mushrooms,

Last weekend Andersen committed the first person af the year to long-term psychiatric care in River- view Mental Hoapital In Vancouver. Occasionally he treats as many aaeix to eight people in a single night for

d@ trips on the magic mushrooms. ,

Tn past years there have been two mushroom-related deaths in Masset, One of these was a simple overdose and the other is believed to have tng caused by a person ea wrong type af mushroom.

Mushrooms of the genus Pallocybe, he says, often

don't seem magic at all.

The hazards associated with the hallucinogenic

FOR ISLAND DOCTOR __ Mushrooms cause nightmare

fungus arise trom 4 great

number of often interac ; factors. ting

Firstly, each mushroom contains an uncertain and possibly widely varying amount of psychoactive ingredient.

According to Andersen, evidence tends to indicate that the drug content of magic mushrooms may vary to the point where one particularly potent mushroom could be equal to that of six normal ones.

Six to ten mushrooms are generally required to Froduce a high, but this can vary greatly with the in dividual mushrooms, the Hime of year and the method a preservation.

A second complicating factor, which helghtens the nak for mushroom users, is the fact that each person appears to react somewhat differently to the drug.

The usual presentation of an adverae reaction 1s one of the profound anxlety marked by hysteria, panic and fear, The fear is, on occasion, sufficiently intense to make some people suicidal,

Prolonged toxic psychosis '

have occurred, but in these

cases there has been a history of pre-existing peychiatric probelms.

A third danger lurks in the- fields in the form of a wide variety of Amanita mushrooms many of which both closely resemble Puilocybe mushrooms and alzo contain serious polsons.

Doctors on the Islands sometimes are faced with a person who is in an-altered state of consciousness while simultaneously exhibiting symptoms of having eaten poison mushrooms. In such eases, Andersen says, the best method of treatment Is sometimes not at all clear. _In the more straight- forward cases of adverse reaction to the mushrooms, patients are ‘normally sedated and their stomachs

ae pumped.

Unless the patient is in serious condition, comatose a@ worse, they then usually spend the night'in jail aimply because the Health Clinic ches not have enough beds.

Meanwhile, research has mily just started on the long: term effects of the drug

- Pailocybin, -. ” Although litte information

is now certain, Dr, Andersen

mays that since the drug Is chemically very aimilar to LSD and alters brain cell functions to achieve its hallucinogenic properties, in the same manner the eventual effects will probably be similar.

The mushroom he says, may prove to do chromosomal damage, and long-term use could cawe degenerative brain disease, -

Meanwhile, .as court battles shift the legal status af the Psilocybe mushrooms back and forth through the judicial nether world, Sgt. Gordon Gibbs of the Masset RCMP bemoans the fact that m que seems to be aware of oe potentlal dangers of the

mushroom situation is very analogous to a legal lapse several months ago which left B.C. motorcyclists free to ride without 2 helmet. “Some people took ad- vantage of that situation to throw away their helmets,'’ Gibbs said. ‘No one seemed to think about the fact that

its their bead, It's the same .

with mushrooms. No one considera the fact that it’s their head up there,”

PRIME TIME

by Ben Templeton & Tom Forman

¥

WRITERS WING

|

HASKINS, WELCOME FO THE ROUGH AND TUMBLE WORLD OF SEXUAL INNUENDO,

Reconciliation possible

necessarily the erlterla of a good hard- By CATHY McKERCRER

working Politiclan who is more interested in bis constituents rather than his ovn image, and who has some ideas of his own sometimes. If we are to get any progress in Sheena during the next fev years, Tm sureit will have to come mainly from the work and

. interest of people who care

ebout Skeena.

Frances Anderson South Hazelton, 8.C,

LETTERS WELCOME

WASHINGTON (CP) = Thearrival of a high-ranking Chinese delegation in Moscow for talks aimed at reconciling differences with the Soviet Union comes at a time when relations between the two glants have seldom been more strained. *

Even as the Chinese diplo- matic team was getting ready for the Moscow trip, the two Communist coun- tries were exchanging ac- cusations about thelr

motives.

But while there are few in- dicatlons that the talks will yield early success, analysts aay the ess of the twa countries to explore their bitter differences is significant.

The talks are the firat major, high-level attempt ln almost 15 years at holding detailed discussions on the Ideological and political differences that have split the two countries for a|

cades.

A high Chinese delegation

visited Moscow in 1964 after the fall from power of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, whose de-Stalinization policies and industrial tactica were denounced by the Chinese. -

But talks with the new leadership of Leonid Brezhney and Alexel Kosygin came to nothing, The split deepened in 1089 when Soviet troops clashed with Chinese along the border,

Since then, both aldes have maintained as many as one million troops in combat readiness on the border while holding sporadic and fruitless diplomatic negotiations.

In the last year, the level of aerimony has been r: as a result of such develop- ments as the toppling of a Peking-backed government in Cambodia by the Soviet Union's Vietnamese allies, and the subsequent Chinese invasion of Vietnam.

Soviet worries about China’a interests in Asia

havealso been heightened b a new warmth in relations

diplom.‘{c relations last Decembe:; between China and the United States may have sent some shivers of concern through the Soviet leadership. o ;

The Soviet. party newspaper Pravda al the time charged that China was establishing the relations in an attempt to create a broad front against the Soviet Union and expand Chinese domination in Asia.

The theme was renewed during the weekend when Soviet media bitterly denounced China and the US., sccunlng, fen of mani ion & ery the OTe Nations, which voted last week to allow the P backed = government of Pol Pot to continue to represent Cambodia in the General Assembly.

While recent Chinese activities Ln the international arena have provoked such rhetorle in the Soviet media, they have alao forced Moscow to look at the possibilities for altering the state of Soviet-Chiness rela- Hons, and to examine ways of ensuring that China's new Hea with the Weat don't leave the Soviet Union isolated.

There have been changes Inside China, too. Following the death of Mao Tse-tung, China has taken on masaive industrial expansion,

somewhat akin to the

Khrushchev policy so bit- terly denounced by China.

Both sides apparently an opportunity ta reassess the state of relations when China decided it would not approve a five-year: extension of the SinoSoviet friendship treaty. While the two countries

have agreed to the talks, the |

backdrop of mistrust suggests the process of reconcliiation will be long and difficult.

COMMENT

By STAN PERSKY

How about saying something nice about Joe Clark's Tories fora change

Sure. (I'd even be willing to say something nice about Bill Bennett’s near -Tories if they ever take the province off directionless auto-pilot and decide to

ern again. ) east week, federal Health Minister David Crombie injected a note of sanity in‘o the national state of well- being. About time, too.

For weeks, the Clark government bas been acting Jess than rationally. First, they got the Arabs mad at us by threatening to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Then the Prime Minister pushed ahead with plans to teed our natural resources to the Petrocannibals by dismantling our money-maaing crown corportation for energy and selling it off to the ail companies, That was followed by oily-stick hinta that the government was planning to rob the country's workers of unemployment insurance protection.

Thus, it was reassuring to hear Health Minister Crombie announce a new policy that promises to give the one million native people in Canada more say about health care delivery. _

The problem of native health care finally received |

long-overdue attention as a result of the tragic death of 11-year-old Renee Smith of Alert Bay, B.C, She died of untreated appendicitis in January, An inquest jury found the community's sole doctor at the time, Dr. Jack Pickup, negligent, but demands by the Nimpkish band for a public inquiry into the state of medical services for native Indians went unheeded by provincial Health Minister Bob McClelland.

The Nimpkish appealed te the federal government and Crombie responded, Earlier this month he paid a visit to the Cormorant Island fishing community and held face-to-face formal meetings with the Nimpkish.

After listening to the presentation of a series of briefs documenting the high rate of deaths, disease, aulcide and violence amongst the Indian population, Crombie promised that federal funds for Indian health care services at Alert Bay would be made available only with the approval of the Nimpkish band, The offer was more than polite words, since the provincial government had days before proposed a $1.5 million new 15-bed hospital at Alert Bay, with a chunk of the costs to be picked up by the feds, Crombie’s offer gives the Nimpkish veto power over the: proposal.

A week later, the Health Minister went further, announcing in Ottawa that the government would remove guidelines that forced Indians to pay for uninsured services (such as eye care, dental work, drugs.and transportation) previously provided free. Crombie also publicly recognized the government's failure to acknowledge health care as a right of all Indians and pledged that native communities would play a decisive role in health care delivery decisions. The new policy was welcomed with ‘'cautious en- thusiasm" by Noel Starblanket, president of the National Indian Brotherhood. ;

There will, of course, be some predictable grum- bling about giveaways to Indians, but the brutal facts ought to silence the complainers. As Dr. John Coombes, a consulting physician for the NIB pointed out at the Alert Bay meeting, Indians have a tuber- culosis incidence six times that of the national average, almost five times the national death rate, a spiralling suicide nightmare, and a major alcohol epidemic. Crombie’s move is a welcome first step toward a solution.

THE UNITY SOLUTION: A recent survey asked Canadians how they felt about confederation. Sur- prisingly, more than 10 per cent of the population throughout the country said they favoured political independence for their province and subsequent economic association with Canada rather than the current arrangement. But, wait a minute, that’s what Rene Levesque wants for Quebec.

How about this as the final solution to the unity crisis? We let all of the provinces declare complete political independence and then we permit all of them to form an economic assoclation with Canada, which, by that time, will have been reduced to the size of a small desk drawer in Ottawa. While this would drastically shrink the country, it would definitely lower the political noise level, ‘to say nothing of the savings in misspent federal expenditures,

\

ATRILL THINKS

_ By THOMAS ATRILL

Today’s column is about cutting ice.

Thirty-five years ago, it was common practice to take up ice and storeit ininsulated sheds for later use. Refrigeration was not as entrenched as it is today, hence the need for thousands of tons of winter-cut ice.

The camp was established in late February, bet- ween the railroad tracks and the frozen lake. Arrangements were made to load on the main line, while the trains were rerouted through the siding. There were several large insula buildings, a elevating hoist and a ‘donkey’ winch todraw the ice up out of the lake. Out on the lake, a team of greys scraped the snow off to make way for the ice cutters. This crew consisted of an ice-saw operator and several men with sharp wedge like cutters to break up the

ocks,

When the starting bugs were cleared out, we had a long line of three hundred pound blocks going steadily toward the boxcar. My job was at the foot of the long ramp, placing the ‘dog’ in the ice so that the donkey could pull itup to the elevator. It could best be described as a ‘steady’ job, complete with blisters and almost utter exhaustion.

One day, the ‘cat’ operator rushed down and called for help. It seems the tiny bulldozer had stalled while moving boxcars and was now standing between the rails with a headlight rapidy approaching.

Itwas no time for consultation, We heaved, sweated

and some of us swore. At last, by brute strength and -

determination alone, we slid it clear of the main line, where the giant steam locomotive now towered aver us. Stopped. : The train proceeded on its way and we relaxed and talked a bit. And someone discovered that the cat was sill in gear, Nobody's perfect, I guess.