H is for joy; Treatment programs, part 4

The following program was produced as a public service feature by the radio division of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. With cooperation from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Illinois division of narcotic control we present. H is for joy. With. With. In previous programs of ages for joy we've been speaking about the methods of treatment for persons addicted to narcotics. We talked at length about Riverside Hospital in New York City and its program of rehabilitation in New York also has another experimental program under the direction of Mr. Meyer disk and who is the supervising parole officer for the special

narcotic project of the New York State Division of Perro here buy special tape recorded interview with Mr. Diskin to explain this experimental project. Within a few minutes a lot of to me I would like to give you a brief description of the activities philosophy and modus operandi of special narcotics Project at New York State Division of Parole which was set up in the number nine thousand fifty six. But I would like to say a few waves about the problem as a whole. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem in New York City let me say that according to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics there are 60000 addicts and the country of which 40 percent are concentrated in the York City and in the surrounding area. The New York City penitentiary at Rikers Island reports that 61 percent of its and maids who are serving time for narcotics charges or for crimes committed in order to maintain Democratic habit.

Similarly the women's house of detention reports the figure to be 74 percent. I think this might give you some idea of how large a problem we have in our city not in New York State Division of Parole for some time has become increasingly aware of this problem because more and more parolees were coming out of state's prisons and state with former stories with a history of addiction. It was therefore decided that something should be done about the treatment of these individuals not traditionally. When a person came out on parole and reverted to the use of drugs. He was cited as a parole violator or sent back to the institution was re paroled again relapse the use of drugs and again sent back resulting in that essential revolving door situation. We decided that possibly we ought to set up a specialized case loads for the kind of addicts only with a maximum of 30 parolees pro caseload.

After special legislation was passed such a project was set up in a New York City office. The parole division. Now let me give you some of the criteria in the selection of parolees for this project. First the age we were primarily interested in getting the younger group. Because studies in New York City revealed that more and more the younger element was becoming involved in the use of narcotics whereas before the war the average age of the onset of infection was about twenty eight years. Recently the beginning age of addiction was fifteen point seven years. As a matter of fact we had some parolees not project who began using drugs at the age of 11 and 12. Since most of the attics in New York City were of the younger age group we felt that we should take those up to the age of 25 consonant with the degree of infection in the community. Now. In effect we stacked the cards against

ourselves because let's in turn tells us that there is reason to believe that most addicts really reach a point of emotional maturation somewheres around a middle 30s and early 40s. Therefore if we were to accept such priorities and plot project our figures would be invalid because some of these parolees might have abstained from the use of the comics with or without our help. Secondly type of drugs used in. The project decided to accept only opiate drug users 87 percent of all addicts in the York City used her 1 with another 5 percent using such opiate the Riveters and synthetics as Dilaudid Louden them Demerol and aleph And so again we took only those people who were addicted to that type of drug. Consonant with the degree of infection in the community. The project with did not accept marijuana or cocaine users for the simple reason that these are not considered physiologically addicting because there are relatively little or no withdrawal

symptoms attached to these drugs. The project decided to take mainline is only because they are the true addicts. As far as I am concerned an individual who is nothing less than popping is not really addicted for the simple reason that when it is expensive it is illegal to get. So why should a person waste so much of his drug by the first two forms of intake. Another reason why we decided to accept only mainlanders was because of how our project was to have any kind of a lot of the of our experiment was to show any kind of success or failure. It would be measured by abstinence. Now obviously it is easier to examine the mainland because of the presence of needle marks on his body. And of course it is not so easy to detect the sniffer and the skin Popper. We then come to another criteria criminal background just as the agent controversy as to which comes first the chicken or the egg. There's been a

controversy among people engaged in the field of mechanics as to whether the addict is basically a criminal who takes drugs as part of his criminal way of life. Or was he basically an addict who indulges in criminal activity in order to maintain his habit. Now the literature in the field describes several types of addicts. I will refer to one commonly known as as a symptomatic addict. He is basically hostile aggressive remorseless predatory driven by hostile and aggressive impulses and deep seated resentments. He takes drugs primarily as part of his criminal way of life. Drugs has no particular just of value for this type of person. It is only one minor symptomatic outlet chosen of the available for the expression of his antisocial and aggressive trends. There is reason to believe that while under parole supervision he would not take drugs for fear of

detection by a sprawl of a sort and consequently returned to the institution and stead the project accepted into his program. But that that I will end his book drug addiction calls the primary addiction in that a good personality type. These are individuals who are basically emotionally immature. They are unable to compete in society and when confronted with an adult problem they escape the problem through the use of drugs. These are the people that project accepted into his program and in effect we again stack the odds against ourselves because drugs has a true just a value for these individuals and we will have been informed by the various narcotic hospitals that these are the people most of the call to treat and have the worst prognosis. One of the criteria was the familial relationships. Surveys have shown that a good many addicts come from broken home situations. He says the family takes no interest at all in the addict's behavior or it dominates his every

move and leaves him no freedom of action. The project therefore decided that in addition to doing casework with the parolee himself it also should perform its services with the families themselves to get them to realize that the addict is and individual who is entitled to his freedom of action. Finally we decided to select only those who had at least one year to go under parole supervision to note the efficacy of our approach. The. Operation was finally put into effect and the vendor 956 with four case loads and three male and one female. Because of the small caseload the priorities are required to report weekly for a full year. Now you might think that the parolees resent reporting that frequently actually the reverse is true because of the very close working relationship established with the police. They look forward to their meetings with the parole officer to discuss their problems their aims and aspirations. I did tell us frankly that they can discuss their problems

frankly with us. A thing which they cannot do with their families. One of the primary objectives in our project is continued and steady employment on the part of the parolee. Many of these attics have never worked or worked very little did not know how to look for it. It gives these people a feeling that confidence if they are able to work 8 full hours a day it sort of makes them feel legit. They see the some of the so-called legit members of the community to use their binoculars come in to work get o'clock in the morning entertaining 5 o'clock at night and say psychologically if they repeat the same actions and do the same things they feel that they are constructive members of the community. When a truly loses his job or the resources of the project immediately mobilized to get him another job side by side with employment it is also necessary to imbue these people with constructive leisure time activities. There is a dual purpose

to promote leisure time activities. First of all the average addict has no constructive aim or ambition in life. His main goals where is he getting his next shot from. It is therefore necessary to inculpate the addict a desire for constructive aims and activities to supplement the undesirable drive for an eye contacts. Secondly it gets down to a basic question of a written tech. Assuming that the addict works at hours a day and sleeps and hours a day there are still eight more hours in which he can if you can get himself into mischief. Invariably these people will gravitate back to their haunts and to their former associates and refer to the use of drugs. It is therefore necessary to imbue them with constructive leisure time activity motivation. Had the project has done the following along these lines. Community centers. I think we've had a certain amount of success along these lines because of the active interest taken by the director who introduced them around. In addition

less uptime bill will mean a special drive I'm getting some of our addicts to attend evening schools to promote their academic and vocational schools as a result of this 30 parolees who have never attended evening school before and had enrolled in local schools. What happens when a parolee goes back on drugs. So I said to you were originally that the traditional treatment of something the proly back to the institution did not work at the same time the division the prole must share the responsibility for community protection. Where do we draw the line. After some experimentation we finally came to this conclusion. If there was an indication that the addict has been victimizing the community and ordered to maintain his habit then he is retained as a parole violator. If on the other hand a person has been working regularly and except for the relapse has been making a successful adjustment in the community we could not see where we where it would benefit

the community or the individual to send them back to prison or reformatory with if we take a calculated risk in these instances and permit him to remain a free society under very strict and intense supervision. It is my feeling. That the problem. Is a community problem and that something to be solved in the hospital. And the institutional and vegetable ie the addict makes a successful adjustment and the drug free environment. There are no problems no stresses Australians placed upon him but when he is retired as a community it is at that point where he requires all the guidance and support which can be supplied by the EFF the cat clinic. You just heard Mr. Meyer disk and supervising parole officer for the special narcotics project of New York State. Mr. Diskin speaking about the experimental project stressed the importance of proper guidance of narcotic addicts after they've been returned to society. The positive

results of this experiment have led many involved to conclude that only through human contact. Can any extensive measure of success be noted. That only one others not addicted to drugs attempt to aid one who is an addict. Only then when human touch is human can one begin to learn that H is not for joy. Scripted by I had been at a production by Bill Oberg This is Ted Seeley speaking. The preceding tape recorded program was made available to the station by the National Association of educational broadcasters. This is the Radio Network.