States Report on 'The Seed' is due Soon

But the state evaluation has already been criticized by opponents and supporters of The Seed. Both groups have begun to doubt the panel’s impartiality.

Doubters had misgivings from the start.

They scoffed when the state gave Barker veto power in selecting members of the panel to conduct the study.

When the evaluators admitted they had talked only to selected Seed clients -- those selected by Barker -- the critics were prepared to discard the evaluation as useless.

On the other side, Seed supporters were apprehensive that the panel would be prejudiced against the progrom because mostly negative pressure had prompted the evaluation.

ANd THEY WERE concerned that the unorthordox style of The Seed would alienate members of the panel with a more conventional attitude toward drug rehabilitation.

It is the unorthodox aspect of The Seed that has won it such rabid support -- and criticism. The program is designed for the youthful drug user. it makes heavy use of peer pressure, to affect attitude change, and heavier use of peer pressure, to affext attitude change, and heavier use of confrontation.

Some observers say the program resembles a revival meeting because of the confessional portion of the rehabilitation process.

At least one member of the evaluation panel has conceded -that the committee’s report will probably not be well received.

If the panel member is correct, The Seed will remain the most-evaluated but least understood drug program in the state.

IN THE LAST FEW months, the program has been examined twice by the National Institute of Mental Health, the agency that provides much of its funding.

After its first year of operation, The Seed got a friendly evaluation by the North Carolina Division of Correction, and along the way to the state’s "clear the air" evaluation, the program has been subjected to a variety of superficial and perhaps biased examinations.

the NIMH study, probably the most valuable evaluation, is secret. NIMH rules prohibit disclosure of a program’s shortcomings during its first year of funding.

While Seed watchers wait for the state evaluation to become public, a group of Dade County civic leaders is doing still another survey of the program.

The Dade committee is preparing an evaluation for the Health Planning Council, the agency with the power to accept or reject new drug programs in the county.

HPC APPOINTED the committee when it became apparent that Barker was trying to get his program accepted by the Dade School Board and the Metro Commission.

The HPC committee may prove to be the most impartial panel yet to evaluate The Seed.

On it are businessmen, churchmen, physicians, reformed drug addicts and experts in drug rehabilitation.

The group began meeting last week. It hopes to culminate its examination with a visit to The Seed, a visit being arranged by Barker’s biggest Dade County supporter, Judge Alfonso Sepe.

At its first meeting, the HPC committee heard reports from supporters and critics of the program. They went to the studios of WTVJ for a private viewing of "The Seed of Hope," a documentary favorable to The Seed.

AT ANOTHER MEETING, the group tried to outline the kinds of questions they would most like to see answered in their evaluation.

Few of the members appear to have preconceived notions about the program. Those who do admit freely to them and preface their remarks with their bias.

The question for them is twofold: Does The Seed work, and if it does, does Dade County need it.

Along the way, they hope to discover whether they can establish a program similar to The Seed without Art Barker.

But threaded through their investigation is another recurring. question. "Why," they keep asking, "is all this evaluation of The Seed necessary?"