Mimeo 4-H-404
Purdue University
Cooperative Extension Service
Lafayette, Indiana
life science
LI R A R Y
AUG. 24, 1967
Drugs, Teenagers, and Cloud Nine
The problem of addiction drugs continues
to confound the so-called experts in all con-
cerned professions. It generates enough
blast to send them into orbit, but not much
light.
And they've been on cloud nine for many
decades. The problem is calling for renewed
attack.
The United States has more narcotic ad-
dicts both in total number and population-wise
than any other country of the Western World,
There are many doubts as to the wisdom of
the prohibitary approach to problems of drug
addiction, however. Current treatment of ad-
diction is unsatisfactory. The question is:
should narcotics addiction be considered and
treated as an illness?
Since antiquity, men have used drugs and
have had addiction problems. Knowledge of
the opium plant goes far back in history.
Up to the 19th century, the main objec-
tive of medicine was to relieve pain; therapy
was directed at symptoms, not causes. The
popularity of a drug such as opium, suited to
so many medical situations, involves the dis-
covery of its alkaloid derivatives, the mention
of the hypodermic, the use of morphine during
the Civil War, and the addicts resulting from
its use then.
Heroin was heralded as a new ''non-
addicting” drug at this time (100 years ago),
and it was some time before it was recognized
as a more severely addicting drug than mor-
phine. The underworld was exploiting it
wholesale, however.
The patent-medicine huckster of this period also sold his "pain-killers" and "cough mix-
” etc., containing opium to a most gullible public.
The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 origi-
nally placed narcotics under legal control,
licensure, inventory, prescription use by
doctors, and it was illegal for an addict to
buy or possess opium and its derivatives.
As an over-all trend, addiction has de-
clined since 1914. An all-time low was
reached during World War II. It is generally
claimed that there are about 60, 000 addicts
in the United States today, most of whom are
in the large cities. New York City may have
25,000.
Since World War II, addiction among
youth under 21 has increased. Addiction
spreads in this age group; it is evident, from
person to person, not from deliberate "push-
ing" by drug peddlers. The first dose is
often given as a "friendly" gesture.
Experts in the field of narcotic addiction
find that the use of drugs creates a "frater-
nal spirit" and a strong "bond" reinforced
by repeated social rejection of the "junkie. ”
To the young and more easily influenced,
admission into this kind of social organiza-
tion of drug users becomes a "proud status
symbol. " The ritual of preparation and ad-
ministration of the drug becomes part of a
rite shedding its aura of mysticism upon the
initiated.
No definition of drug addiction can in-
clude all the drugs which are addicting. The
World Health Organization suggests the
following:
"Drug addiction is a state of periodic
or chronic intoxication produced by the
repeated consumption of a natural or
synthetic drug. Its characteristics in-
clude: (1) an overpowering desire or
need (compulsion) to continue taking the