Evening star., 1947-02-13

Of Three Articles.)
dition makes him danger to the public
or to himself. In addition there Is the
matter Of appearances. This is the
Nations Capital and for years Inn
memorial it has been the policy to pro-
tect visitors from the obnoxious sight OF
staggering drunks.
"And the courts have kept that policy
alive" says Maj. Callahan. "A police
man who brings in drunk can usually
get a conviction. The Judges take his
word for it. And there is tendency
in that direction ON the part of the lieu
tenants and captains In keeping the
men on the patrols working. There are
three men In eight-hour shifts around
the clock on each beat. If one Of them
makes number OF arrests for drunken
ness and the two others do not, the lieu
tenant is likely to jack them up-to
say he saw drunkards on their beat and
they better run them In
Washington policemen who went into
the military service and whose travels
brought them to New York, Chicago
and San Francisco were amazed to note
that not all intoxicated persons In the
streets were arrested. 1t scandalized
the travellers from the Capital.
There Is no conflict between Judge
Casey and Maj. Callahan. There just
has been no restatement of policy on
the problem for years and they are
a little bit apart on 1t. But then policy
on sentencing varies greatly among the
10 Municipal Court judges.
Half a Million Dollars Year.
t,i11 Re- ,lya 1,AB
been going up, the number Of inmates
at Occoquan $50 to 80 per cent OF whom
are in there on intoxication charges)
has been going down. Where the aver
age number of inebriates there in recent
years has been $50, the present number
is 40. More are able to pay their fines
today. OF $4,000 commitments to the
jail each year (most prisoners are trans
ferred to the Occoquan Workhouse or
the Lorton Refornatory), 5000 have
been for intoxication Cost Of their
maintenance has been close to $500.000
year.
The Hebert bill authorizes the District
to establish clinic paid for by the gal
lonage tax and for judges to flnd
habitual drunkards to be chronic alco-
holes and sentence them to 80 days
treatment. If the clinic recommends
further treatment they can be brought
back to court and sentenced to another
80 days.
The idea Of taxing the liquor trade
for care Of drunks is not new. The
late Melvin G. Hazen, when he was
Commissioner, championed such q plan
to pay for q prison farm for alcoholics.
But, If this bill Is passed, it will be one
of the first experiments with clinic
for alcoholics In the custody Of the
courts. Connecticut has passed q law
giving per cent Of liquor revenues
to board on alcoholism with broad
powers to establish clinics and pay for
disqualification. These revenues are just
coming to the board and the experiment
is In its infancy. Sweden has state
clinics for inebriates sentenced by the
courts. The United States has clinic
for drug addict prisoners at Lexington,
KY, which reports a high rate Of re-
habilitation.
No one in the Health Department or
the Department Of Corrections seems to
have made any specific plans for the
utilization of such large sums as would
flow from a gallonage tax {even cent
on fifth would bring In $250,000). And
all through the recent reports on the
subject (Yale University published q
Quarterly journal of literature on alco-
holisnD mention is made Of selection Of
alcoholics for psychiatric rehabilitation.
Whether much could be done for the
police court load of alcoholics-many Of
the men without families, social dere.
licts-by the scientific treatment" pre-
scribed in the Hebert bill has yet to be
demonstrated anywhere in this country.
Treatment by Aversion.
There is one treatment, however,
which does not call for responsive"
mental attitude. It Is the aversion
method and it has been gaining atten-
tion. DR.. E. Y. Williams, a psychiatrist
at Freedmen's Hospital, reports that he
has been using it successfully there.
The aversion method is based on
conditioned reflexes, the determination
of Ivan Petrovich Pavlof, Russian
physiologist, which gave birth in Aneri-
ca to the school of psychology known
as Behaviorism. The classic story Of Dr.
Pavlof's dog and the dinner bell is well
known. Three times day for seven
days DR.. Pavlof rang dinner bell and
gave his dog a plate Of meat. On the
eighth day he rang the bell. He had no
meat. But the dogs mouth watered.
DR.. Pavlof had conditioned reflex.
In the aversion method the patient
is given a drug and then drink Of
whisky. Because of the presence of the
drug, the patient becomes violently
nauseated. After several days Of this
treatment giving the drug is abandoned.
The whisky still makes the patient sick.
A reflex has been conditioned Un-
fortunately a conditioned reflex will
wear of some weeks after conditioning
and an alcoholic whose courage is
greater than his aversion is likely to
take drink. The whisky does not make
him sick. The cure is over. However,
for those who are willing to undergo it,
the reflex tsickness of the stomach at
the taste or smell of whisky can be
reconditioned periodically.
tTomorrow: The Connecticut law
compared with the Hebert bill.)