News Scrapbook 1973

OOit ;ian tllit o 'Inion SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, RIDAY MORNING, JUNE 29, 1973 00

PAGE D-1 Student Re cue Women 8) HELEN CALL ThP ivy towP obsolete, arrord1ng to Dan Franklin, "ho runs Cal!forma Public Interest Research Group (C';\LPlRG) here, and colle~ students thesP d:iys feel the best le:irmn::: expenenre they can have 1s lo get out of the hall of learmn; and out mto thP society around them St1ll. there is a certarn el - ment of old fashioned 1dea1- 1sm 111 the CALPIRG 111volve- ment. he a> . because the organuauon deals Wlth res- cue of a damsel 111 distress- this particular damsel be111g the housewife. Con umer resParch earned lo the pom oi 1nfluenC111g re- ailers 1s th wor tha stu- den do o g t mto CAL- PIRG. It Is an or za Ion put to- gether and run by college stu- d en . Research projects are c9nducted by s udents. All bu Franklin the executivl! drrector. are unpaid volnn• teers Man of the proJecis can be done for college cred! m such subjects u political EO,.nce and home econonu . DED BY STUDENT C:ALPIRG in San Diego county l.D olves su: campus- "S It IS f ded by the ~u- den thPmselves with a a year contnbu\.ion At of the pnvate coue~ is deduc ed v.1th the twtion fees tudents v.orklng for CAL· PIRG ar.- from Cah.forrua State l mvers1ty San Diego ; Cmvers1ty of Cal!forma , San D1ei::o; f l'ru\ers1ty of San Diego; .;liruvers1ty of San Die~o Law School esa Col• lei::e and Grossmont Colle.;e. The rnfluenre of CALPIRG is no on campu but 1n the oommuruty. TheJr Investiga- tion of food pnces for tn• 5tant . has been In· trumental, Franklin feels, 1n narrowmg e gap between pnc char~I' by th'" high• cst-pnced an !owes -priced discount fo stores. Says Franklm: ''Our food pnre e11ne are what has g11·en us o reputation m San Diego. Our w:,;ey has had a significant loc unpact on food prices. Every month our survey shows ano er s in the margin between the stores.'' However, no tha the sur- vey has become established, Franklin hopes some other organization will ta e it o\er and release .!us people for other work. Thell' current proJect is re-- searctung prescription drug ts "We are tryuig to show the tremendous difference m pnces between pharmac~s. The difference can be as much 00 per cent, depend- in6 on where you shop. We tlunk that people who spend a lot for drugs-like our seruor c11izens--should know v. here to ;;et the the best buys." : IM!IJEDIATE GOALS Franklin said there are ·o goals JD sight. One JS to make 1t legal to •ubstitute genenc drugs for prescnpt.lon drugs where they are eqwvalent. The other 1s to requrre phar- macies to post prices on the 100 most commonly sold pre- scription drugs so shoppers can compare pharmacies. Another proJect on which research has been completed is the study of amount of fat m hamburger labeled regular or lean by the retailer. The organization had samples of hamburger laboratory tested. "We expected to flnd some variation but we were sur- pnsed at bow great 1t was," said Franklin. "We are writing each of the stores now, asking what steps they are going to take to up,: grade thell' ground beef label- mg . We are interested in the problems of the shopper who has no idea of what she JS buymg. If a product 1s la- beled-what 1s on the la beJ should ha,·e somethmg to do with what IS ms1de the pack- age: • EXPESSIVE TESTS More hamburger teStJng probably will bp too ex- pensive for CALPIRG. Franklin said 'We can't af. ford to huy all this ham- 'lurger. WP had to buy 81 ample to i;et thrl'E' C1f each d Jrom each store We nnl • about four ounces ackage- and ended • urplus pounds of

-Stott Ptooto b'f Ted Wlnfle d

I [>/ !<(, IJiredor Don rruritlm, rig 111, de cu ..

wilf1 phorma,, t Poul Gena/er.

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