Evening star., 1951-02-04

ulOlC u1 uSS.
Chicago finds a serious increase
In drug addiction-the city.
Crime Commission calls it tire
mendous" and the Juvenile Pro.
tective Association says the situa-
tion has gone completely out Of
control"
In st. Louis, Federal narcotics
officials report "a huge increase
especially in recent months"
Detroit authorities and Federal
narcotics men in Michigan say
there is an alarming" increase
Of teen-age addiction in the city
and proportionately in the rest
Of the State.
New Orleans is having trouble
So is Buffalo, N. Y. A number OF
other communities report that
teen-age addiction is not a prob
lem but a Federal Narcotics
Bureau spokesman cautions tha,
statistics and information usually
lag behind events.
A Federal attorney charged ir
open court at the arraignment OF
a suspected drug peddler that
draft reflections because of mar
cotics use have become very high
Heron Is the Worst
The United States Public Health
Service hospital for drug addiction
at Lexington, KY, reported last
November that in the first II
months Of 1850 1t had received
2o3 addicts under 20 years of age
In 1S4S it received 13.
New York awakened to it's teen
age addiction after several Of
ficials independently noted the
drug habit was becoming almost
epidemic among youthful law
breakers.
Doris Clarke, chief probation
officer Of the New York's magis-
trates' court, found last spring
that more and more probation
reports carried notations tina,
teen-agers concerned were ha-
bitual users of drugs-particularly
heroin, morphine and cocaine.
About the same time another
court bureau found 124 cases OF
drug addiction among teen-age
crime suspects between May and
November last year. In the three
year period before 1949, there
were fewer than IS cases, almost
all Of them involving use OF
marijuana. The new cases were
primarily concerned with heroin
While marijuana is legally clas-
sifled as a habit-forming drug
most medical authorities consider
1t less dangerous than those drugs
derived from opium-heroin and
morphine. Heroin is the worst"
OF the drugs. Its manufacture and
prescription are outlawed in this
country.
A frightened mother sought
court assistance for a 15-year-old
son. She had found him uncon-
scious on the bathroom floor,
blood squirting from a hole in his
arm gouged with a safety pin
preparatory to taking a shot. The
boy was racked and helpless from
heroin.
A worried father sought COM
mitment Of his 16-year- -old
daughter as wayward minor.
She flouted family authority
stayed out all night frequently
and without explanation. Fur
thermore. he said, he had found
"the works" in her purse on
three separate occasions. (The
works, as far too many kids know,
consists Of hypodermic needle
or safety pin-eyedropper, spoon
with fame blackened bottom and
capsules containing drugs.)
Other parents told of their
children stealing. pawning family
effects. prostituting themselves,
refusing to attend school or nav-
ing large sums of money they
could not explain.
In most cases arrested teen
age addicts have become crimi-
nails to get money to buy drugs.
This Is characteristic Of addiction.
Once hooked" adults or adde's
cents will commit almost any
crime to satisfy the craving set
up by narcotics.
New York's first problem was
the complete lack of facilities to
care for these unhappy boys and
girls. It is a problem other cities
face as we'll. Addicts routinely
are committed to jails and houses
of detention where the only treat
ment available is cold turkey
This is simply sudden withdrawal
of drugs. 1t Is a narrowing ex-
perience, invariably accompanied
by violent illness requiring con-
slant nursing. Withdrawal ILL
ness is the first part of the cure
countless addicts have boiled
through-only to 60 right back
on the drug upon release.
An alternative to jail is return
ing young addicts to their own
homes with some sort of part-time
supervision. The actual result is
to return boys and girls to poor
environments. familiar sources OF
drug supplies and the old cycle
of crime -and-satisfaction typical
of the habit.
Stop-Gap Measure
A third alternative is commit
ment to the Federal Hospital at
Lexington. available only to ad-
diets over 18. Here the cure
involves gradual withdrawal from
drugs and lengthy medical and
psychiatric treatment. However
there is a long waiting list and
1t is weeks and months before
possible admission.
Many social workers are op.
posed to using Lexington for Older
teen-apers. It has no special ia.