Original subtitles

This is the city, Los Angeles, California.

I work here.

I carry a badge.

The story you're about to see is true.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

It was Thursday, July 18th.

We were working out of Narcotics Division.

The boss is Captain Trembly.

My partner is Bill Gannon. My name is Friday.

We were returning to the office after lunch when we picked up a radio call

regarding a juvenile jumper.

We were in the area and we drove over to check it out.

Help me! Kill the snakes!

The snakes, kill them!

They're climbing on the building!

Help me! Kill them!

Kill them! They're biting.

They're eating my legs, please.

Back! Back!

Kill them! Kill them!

Kill the snakes, please!

They're climbing the building.

Kill them! Die, snakes!

Die! Kill them!

Kill them, please! Help me kill them!

What's the story?

It seems the boy got onto the roof and barricaded the door up there.

- I had to call the Fire Department. - You know who the kid is?

Well, I haven't had the time to check witnesses.

The crazy kid's got wiped down.

- You guys must see a lot of this. - More than we like.

Young kids standing up there swinging a TV antenna,

trying to kill the snakes that were after him.

Sounds like acid, doesn't it?

Either that or he's psycho.

Please, please keep the snakes away!

They're after me. You just see them all around.

They're crawling on the sidewalks.

All right. Take it easy, son.

- Please! - We found this in his pocket.

Oh, no. Please no.

LSD.

You wanted some saccharine, Joe?

No, thanks.

Pot, speed, LSD.

Why the devil do the kids mess with that garbage?

- I don't know. - It's like they got a grudge against themselves.

I mean it, Joe. What's really going on with these young people?

That boy today, where is the kick in going out of your head?

I don't know. You see them over in Juvenile,

8, 9-year-old losing it versus 10-year-olds acid freaks.

They keep telling us that our society is more sophisticated.

It looks like we got the drugs to go along with it, doesn't it?

Joe, Bill, I'd like you to meet somebody.

Sergeant Joe Friday, Officer Bill Gannon, this is Robert Squire.

- Mr. Squire. - Bob here thinks he has an idea

concerning teenage drug addiction.

Maybe not stomp it out completely,

but at least let it know it's been in a good fight.

Sit down.

First off gentlemen, I'll tell you what I told the captain.

I don't know beans about crime prevention.

I'm a businessman. I like to think I'm a good one.

I made a few bucks in the scaffolding business

by finding new and better ways to tackle old problems.

Last week, I happened to be having dinner with a friend,

John Stevens, a parole officer with the California Youth Authority.

We got to talking about the growing problem of teenage drug addiction.

You said it seemed a hopeless problem.

I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking who is this old duff to flap his gums?

That was pretty much Steven's reaction too.

He told me to solve it if I thought it was that simple,

but it's not simple.

But I think I've come up

with a partial solution, a beginning.

No one has been able to curb teenage drug addiction, right?

Right. Why?

Ask the question I ask myself.

What is it you people, people like myself,

are doing wrong that the competition is doing right?

- The competition? - The drug pushers, they're selling drugs,

temporary kicks that wind up making addicts or corpses of their customers.

Why are they still in business when all they have to sell is poison?

You tell us, Mr. Squire.

It's just sales force. His salesmen are kids.

One kid uses the junk and talks it up

and before you know it, he has sold 10, 20, 50 other kids on it.

And who is around to tell the kids that dope is bad?

We are, the older generation, teachers, principals,

parents, policemen, all of us according to the kids... the enemy.

Gentlemen, if we were selling five-dollar bills

for a dollar and a skate key,

the kids wouldn't buy them from us.

- I got an idea. - What's that, sir?

Something like counterintelligence.

Folks my age, your age, can lecture the kids

or arrest them and that's that,

but it takes a kid to convince another kid.

Most teenagers try pot or LSD or speed

because it's stylish, the in thing to do.

They're convinced all the other kids are doing it.

And you know how important it is to young people to be in step with the crowd.

Okay. Well, what if we can get the teenagers themselves

to actively oppose the use of narcotics?

If they're going to play follow the leader,

we've got to make sure the leader isn't a drug freak.

Let's face it. A small percentage of kids

are going to become addicts in spite of everything we can accomplish

and a large percentage of decent kids won't even

go near the junk even if we do nothing,

but there's a tremendous number of teenagers sitting on the fence

who go one way or the other

and they're worth fighting for, aren't they?

Makes sense, but how do you make it work?

Let me tell you a true story.

I once had a sick Siamese kitten and I took it to the vet.

He told me the cat had rickets

and prescribed some gelatin capsules containing cod liver oil.

Now, the cat needed cod liver oil

and it was good for the cat and we were determined

to give that cat cod liver oil whether it wanted it or not.

So we held that cat and shoved capsules down its throat

and we held its mouth open and that cat clawed and scratched

and choked and sputtered and did everything,

but take us to court and sue us for mistreating it.

He just didn't want us swallowing the capsule.

No way to convince that cat you were doing him a favor.

After several days of force feeding him,

trying to shove those darn things down his throat,

he accidentally bit into a capsule.

All of a sudden, he began licking his chops,

and after that we had no trouble with him at all.

We merely bought a bottle of cod liver oil,

put the stuff on a spoon, and the cat licked it up.

- Get the message? - Maybe.

A great deal of the materials on drugs and narcotics

that's being put out for teenagers is in capsule form

and those young people are not about to buy it

no matter how good it is for them.

We know it's good for them,

but that's obviously not enough, is it?

Tell them your plan, Bob.

Well, my friend John Stevens

has arranged to let me use a high school classroom,

and tomorrow evening we're holding our first meeting.

Stevens has seen to it that the kids who attend receive summer school credit.

Where do we fit in?

Someone from the police department

should be there to let the young people know that adults and police

can care without having to run the show.

Sounds pretty good to me.

You two work along with Bob.

Yes, sir. What time and where?

- Here you are. - Okay, we will be there.

Thank you, gentlemen. See you tomorrow night.

Bye, Bob.

Well, what do you think, Captain?

I don't know.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but makes sense to me.

- Yes, sir. - Let's hope it does to the kids.

Good evening, gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like you to meet Sergeant Joe Friday

and Officer Bill Gannon

of the Los Angeles Police Department.

We've just seen a film on LSD

and we're about to discuss it.

Go right ahead. We'll stand in the back.

We're here to learn.

Now, what did we learn

from this film we just saw on LSD?

Number one, we learned that it can cause

chromosome damage resulting in possible birth defects.

Number two, we learned that it can cause severe mental damage.

Three, it could bring about vivid and dangerous hallucinations.

Now, what else did we learn?

Stanley?

My name is Stanley Sorel.

I understood this group was going to be run by teenagers.

Well no disrespect, sir,

but you're no teenager

and they're not teenagers either.

You're right especially about me.

But this is our first meeting. The officers are here

because they want to help. I'm here for the same reason,

but I'll gladly allow you to chair the meeting, son.

No, sir, not me.

Mr. Squire, may I?

Please do.

Hi. My name is Ann Flynn.

Even before seeing tonight's film, I knew LSD was bad.

I know that marijuana and speed and all the rest

of that stuff is terrible.

We all agree on that, don't we?

I mean that's why we're here.

But now, what are we supposed to do or what can we do?

We're just kids. We can't arrest anyone.

Well, we can set an example maybe.

What does that mean?

Has anyone here ever tried dope?

Okay, we're all clean.

Isn't that setting a good example?

What more are we expected to do?

Not taking dope isn't doing anything.

That's being passive.

We've got to actively set an example.

We've got to make it the in thing not to try dope.

Well, how do we do that?

By making anyone who tried pot or pills feel stupid

instead of like some big shot on campus.

I guess we all agree on that, but how do you convince anyone?

How do you convince anyone in school of anything?

Bob, how did you get elected to be treasurer

of the student body?

Well, first I campaigned.

Then I made a speech at the election assembly.

And posters helped.

And slogans and jingles too.

That's right.

You convinced people that voting for you

is the smart in thing to do.

Well, we'd all work to help get a friend elected

as student body president or something like that.

Isn't it worth a little effort

to keep a friend off that stuff we saw in the movie?

All right, so it is.

But where do we begin?

We've already begun.

We're here when we could be someplace else.

And we've picked a name... Smart Teens.

I was thinking of a slogan maybe.

How about SOS for Stomp out Stupidity?

Sounds good to me.

If we could come up with some good poster ideas,

I'll bet the principal would let us pin them up in the classrooms.

And I know exactly where they should be pinned,

right next to the clock if you ever expect me to see them.

Well, why don't we all

take a crack at coming up

with some slogans for posters?

How about Keep off the Grass?

That's it, something that keeps will all dig.

Hey, I got one.

Any moron can smoke pot and most morons do.

Great!

Somebody should be writing these down.

Let's make a list.

SOS, Stomp out Stupidity!

- That's good. - Any moron can smoke pot and most morons do!

- Keep off the grass! - Hey, slow down.

Well, what do you think, Sergeant?

Well, they seemed enthusiastic, but a week's a long time.

If they come back next Friday night

and bring their friends, maybe you got something here.

It was kind of you to offer to ask your friend

to draw up posters for the kids.

I've known Al Bertino for a long time.

He's a top artist out of Walt Disney's.

I'm sure if he has time to spare, he'd enjoy doing it.

Fine. Well, good night gentlemen.

- See you next week. - Yes, sir.

Good night. Well, I'll tell you what

- I think and I got a couple of kids. - Yeah.

- They came tonight, but tonight they came out of curiosity. - Yeah.

But now they know if Smart Teens is going to work,

they have to work.

- One other thing. - What's that?

Only six kids here tonight.

They're going to need more than that to make it go.

Oh, I don't know.

Good things have been started with less.

How is that?

It only took one acorn, didn't it?

Monday, July 22nd.

Bill and I drove out to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank

to talk to Al Bertino about the Smart Teen posters.

Hey!

- Welcome to Bertino Land. - Hi, Al.

- How have you been? - Pretty fair?

- And yourselves? - No complaints.

Good.

Now, tell me what this Smart Teens is all about

and how this little Italian boy could help you stomp out dope addiction?

Well, here are the words. Can you supply the music?

- What do you think of them, Al? - Hey. These aren't bad.

How soon do you need the art work?

The next meeting is on Friday.

Friday.

No sweat.

It's lucky you guys came to me instead of Rembrandt.

I'm not mocking him. He does nice work,

but he is slow. You know what I mean.

- Got a few minutes? - A couple.

Good.

Let me try a few roughs on you.

We're no art critics, Al.

Quit bragging.

Hey, these Smart Teens, can they do the job do you think?

It's up to the kids themselves.

If they wanted to succeed,

they can make it happen.

Hey, that's great, Al.

Well, it's just a rough.

Let me try another.

These kids are pretty sharp, you know.

It's reassuring to find out that all

teenagers aren't hooked in some sort of junk.

Punks and the misfits get all of the headlines.

It's a shame, isn't it?

Well, maybe your kids can change all that.

Sort of like Alcoholics Anonymous, isn't it?

I mean the idea that it takes one to cure one.

Well, in a way, Al but with a big difference.

With Smart Teens, the idea is it takes one to prevent one.

How is this?

Fine. That's what the kids have in mind I'm sure.

Good but I'll just work them up in rough till

our teenage jury gives them the final okay.

We'll be back on Friday and pick them up.

- They'll be ready. - Thanks again.

Thanks for asking me.

Your friend, Mr. Bertino, has done a marvelous job.

I just hope somebody shows up to appreciate them.

Well, there's two anyway.

It's getting late, isn't it?

Yes, sir.

I guess maybe I don't understand kids as well as I thought I did.

Maybe they'll be alone.

Maybe they won't.

Maybe we should begin.

We're almost 30 minutes late now.

Bob, do you know of anybody else coming?

Gee, Mr. Squire. They're super!

She must be the pied piper of LA.

It's my fault we're late.

Bob told you, didn't he?

Told us what?

That we wanted to have a meeting first

to make sure everyone knew what Smart Teens was all about.

Bob, didn't you tell them?

Nobody asked for it just now.

Ugh. Well anyway, Mr. Squire, we're here.

You're here.

Okay, everybody.

Take your seats.

Please sit down.

All right, may I please have your attention?

May I have your attention, please?

Well anyway, we met over at my house

so I could explain what Smart Teens was all about,

that it's not a social club and that unless you think

that drugs are a menace and you really want to do something about them

not to bother showing up.

Well, that scared off four of the kids,

but this bunch really wants to go to work.

I wrote out a pledge I thought we might use.

"In joining Smart Teens, I will not use marijuana, LSD,

pet pills, goof balls, heroin, glue, or any kind of illegal drug or narcotic.

If accepted for membership in Smart Teens,

I will do all I can to encourage my friends

and peers to prevent the use of drugs and narcotics

only through common sense and education.

The second meeting of Smart Teens

will now come to order.

We have many new members with us tonight.

Before we discuss these posters and ideas for others,

I think some of our new members

should explain why they have decided to join.

Lisa, do you want to start?

Well, I read in the paper about all those babies

being born deformed because of LSD

and I thought something should be done about it.

How about you, Mark?

In my school, if you don't try marijuana,

they'll call you a square and a jerk

or something like that.

But maybe if Smart Teens is a success,

we'll be able to convince everyone

that you're a jerk if you do try it.

Lori, why do you want to join?

I think the more you know

about dope and about what it really does to you,

the less anyone with half a brain is going to want to mess around with it,

and I figured that the more I can learn about it,

the better I'll be able to convince other kids that it's bad.

What about you, Howard?

I'm 15 years old and I've tried pot

and I never would again in spite of the pressure

some of the kids are putting on me.

But I have a 9-year-old brother

and maybe if Smart Teens works out okay,

there'll be a less chance that he'll ever want to try this stuff.

All right. Now, let's all take a good look at these posters

and see which ones we think are best.

Now, evaluate them. Look at them carefully.

Some of them we'll have to eliminate.

- You don't need us here. - Thanks for all you've done.

It looks like you were right. They're doing it all themselves.

Goodbye, sir.

Now you've all had a good chance to look at them.

Which poster do you think best sums up the problem?

Stanley?

What do you think, Joe?

Will it work?

Can something that starts with 40 kids in a classroom

really make a difference?

Well, you've got 40 super salesmen in that room

and a good product to sell.

I know of one success story that started with a lot less,

the guy who first got the idea to pedal heroin.

Now with a product like that,

just think what the odds against him were.

You know, I was worried there for a while.

Those kids were so late.

But not too late.

Slightly over a year ago,

Smart Teens came into existence.

There are now several thousand members in Southern California alone.

The great majority of today's youngsters are bright and decent human beings.

When they have a clear-cut choice to make,

they generally make the right decision.

Remember,

drug addiction is easier to prevent

than to cure.