BOICEVILLE - Dr. Herb Nieberg, director of behavior medicine at Four Winds Hospital in Katonah and a consultant on cults and Satanism for the Geraldo Show, drew out Onteora students' knowledge on marijuana and did not find them wholly ignorant.

The students knew and named various effects on appetite, short-term memory, depth perception, motor skills and other results of its use and that purity had risen from 2 to 4 percent in the 1960s - when Nieberg admitted he had tried the drug - to 20 to 30 percent currently.

Nieberg did not seem surprised that the majority of the class raised their hands when asked who thought marijuana was benign. He then asked "Who doesn't care if it is?" with similar results and told them, "See? That's the problem."

Nieberg said the drug was now known to be physiologically addictive and that one marijuana joint equaled a pack of cigarettes in tars. He added the drug destroyed 10 million brain neurons in an hour and a half and was lipophyllic, or stored in fat cells, and could be detected for up to 30 days.

Some students were interested in what could mask the use of marijuana in tests and Neiberg said he, would - not say, "for obvious reasons

The keynote -of the day was a satirical performance by a young Brooklyn based theater group sponsored by the Psychiatry Department at Maimondes Medical Center. The troupe, aged 18 to 22, ,'Very effectively used a series of ,,sketches to address situations and - pitfalls which confront today's youth and hammered home their ,message without a trace of preaching.

Workshop topics followed up some of the themes with discussion on peer pressures, cultural bias and diversity, teen drinking and drunk driving, sexual abuse, and YOGA for Self Awareness."

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