H is for joy; Sociological analysis, part 3

The following program is 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. Discussing the Narcotic addict from a sociological point of view was a very difficult thing at best. There are many barriers. One we faced was being able to understand the terminology of the sociologist. Indeed, it seemed to us that only the addict's terminology was as difficult.

However, there may be an analogy in that the sociologist defines each term, each phrase in a very special and precise way. If one term is used out of context, the entire meaning of the statement may be changed or lost. The addict's terms are just as precise in definition, although all definitions are not universally accepted. Sociology, as we mentioned on the last broadcast of H is for joy, involves group patterns of behavior. These group patterns, when added together, comprise what is usually called a culture. For example, the total population of the United States has countless patterns of behavior for each specialized group, but there are certain of these patterns common to all groups, the sum total of which can be called a national culture pattern. Subcultural patterns are simply the more clearly defined cultural patterns of each specialized group.

At this point, H is for joy, is specifically concerned with the subcultural patterns of humans linked together by their physical or physiological dependence upon the continued use of narcotics and drugs. Program 8 attempted an identification of what might be called the ideal addict. Ideal only in that this indicates a composite social type. Using a recent study titled Cats, Kicks, and Color, we learned that at one time in Chicago, Hicks indicated most addicts were members of a minority group, specifically Negro and Puerto Rican. And we've been told by those in continuing contact with Chicago's addicts that this factor has not appreciably changed within the last few years. We also briefly discussed the addict's dress and its importance to him. This study also found the ideal addict, very interested or directly involved in some artistic pursuit, high on his list of artistic interests where the graphic arts and music,

and almost universal intense interest was found to be centered in the form of music known as jazz. The mention of jazz usually is enough to provoke many comments and thoughts. Some are violently opposed to it as a musical expression, and at the opposite extreme others claim jazz is what makes the world go around. However, it's not the intention of this program to evaluate jazz, but only to refer to it as a subcultural trait of most drug addicts. In Cats, Kicks, and Color, we read the following. The Cats' attitude toward music has a sacred, almost mystical quality. Progressive music opens doors to a type of highly valued experience, which for him can be had in no other way. It's more important to him than eating, and is second only to the kick. He may have to give up his hope of dressing according to his standards, but he never gives

up his music. Not long ago, we spoke to an addict and recorded the conversation. In his life, both painting and music, specifically jazz, played an important role. At one time he was a vocalist for a very well-known band, and he told us this story. Some years ago, a time when marijuana and jazz were almost inseparable, somebody, probably an addict, wrote a song. It was written, a rather sung, in the jazz idiom, but had a distinct folk quality about it too. The story of the song, essentially, is centered about the joys of smoking reefers or marijuana. As its sung, listen closely to the words, and you'll be able to hear its close relationship to a desire to escape from reality. The song goes like this. You dream about a reef of five feet long, yes, and my job is not too strong. You get high, but not too long, if you're of a bone, I'm the king of everything.

Say, I gotta get high before I can swing, right this tea, and catch your glee, you're of my bow, your throat gets dry, and you know you how, and everything's there, the truck comes down to the candy store, but she can't cope, I'm in candy, then you know that your body's bent, then you don't give a dang if she can't pay the rent. A Vipo, or perhaps a Vipo, is a descriptive term for a person who smokes marijuana. The use of language in this song is just an indication of the complexity of an attic

speech. If we add the time, we could list about 400 different terms and phrases in the drug addicts vocabulary, but in order to give you a better picture of the attic speech, we've recorded the following monologue. This is supposedly what might be said as one attic meets another on a street corner. Say, Dad, is it what you say, can't say what you're tippin' to, is that I'm tippin' on down the colorway and what dig this flick you want to come to, all, it's dust and all, man, so I'ma slide on around the corner here and gas myself and I'll turn on Jim, or you for that, well now that I'm on cool here, Jim, dig, pick up on this righteous vood. Not very easy to understand, is it? Let's assume you're standing on the same corner with these addicts. You hear every word they say, but you can't understand what they mean. And although you believe the talk is strange, you'd never know they're planning to buy

a fix, thus taking another step in the direction of complete domination by drugs. But you ask, why? Why has he gone this far? Here again we quote from Katz Kicks in color. The development of a social type, such as that of the Kat, is only possible in a situation where there is isolation from the broader community, but great sensitivity to its goals, unquote. In other words, the findings of this research, beyond the mere description of the Kat, indicates that the young Negro male absorbs the goals of the larger society. But in trying to reach these goals, he's frustrated and seeks an escape from the reality of his position on the social ladder by turning to drugs that give him a sense of superiority and adequacy in all situations he might meet. This is not an easy explanation to grasp all at once, but then the whole problem of drug

use and addiction is complex. It's like a puzzle, not yet pieced together, but one on which progress is being made. Here and there we get an idea of what the completed puzzle is supposed to look like. But then we realize there are still too many pieces missing. Too many human souls are out of place. That's kicks and color, an analysis of a social type, the young colored drug user. But is there hope? Is there some indication that the problem will change and not remain a problem? Harold Feinstone and Solomon Cobraan concluded their survey by stating there is hope. If people are accepted as individuals and as true equality of opportunity, education, occupation and assimilation is afforded them, then it can confidently be expected that the cat as a social type will tend to disappear.

Then the puzzle will be a puzzle no more, and with every piece in place it will merely be a picture. Alcohol is also classified medically as an addicting drug. This brought to our mind a question, and we ask Mr. Solomon Cobraan of the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research, isn't alcoholism a more serious problem of drug addiction than heroin addiction or marijuana use because of the extent of the problem? I think that there is no doubt that as far as any objective criteria such as statistics are concerned that alcoholism is a more serious problem. The most modern definitions and studies of alcoholism I've generally arrived at the consensus that it is a form of addiction with all the characteristic forms of tolerance and dependency that we associate with drug use. The fact that alcoholism is so much more serious a problem, and there's good deal of evidence

too, for instance, that some of the associated effects of an addiction are much more serious in the case of alcoholism such as loss of restraint. For instance, there's very little evidence that drug use is associated with violent behavior. That is heroin use. But there's a good deal of evidence that alcoholism often is destructive in this impact this way. One theory that's very interesting is that it's offered by Dr. Abraham Wickler of the United States Public Health Service at Lexington is that we tolerate one form of addiction alcohol ism because it conforms more to our cultural norms of aggressiveness and so on. The yeast, which is more passive and is outluck, you see, is more tolerant of a more passive type of addiction. But it is a very important problem, and it has to be counted for why we're so much more concerned with the drug use problem and alcoholism. With this in mind, it would seem that because alcohol use has become more widely and socially acceptable, in recent years, perhaps there is a trend toward the social acceptance

of drugs. We asked Mr. Coburn if he thought that the apparent increase in the use of sleeping pills is an implied danger in the direction toward a general social acceptance of drug use. There's no doubt that the use of these other forms of drugs are being used, and that in some cases, that their use is much more dangerous than the use of opiates. Some of the findings, for instance, of the work on barbiturates indicate that it's much more difficult to withdraw a person who is addicted to barbiturates than it is to withdraw a person that's actually on heroin, let us say, that they're subject to very severe, sometimes psychotic episodes in the course of that removal. Now my own feeling that we have here is that the barbiturate problem, again, just like the alcoholism problem, is probably more serious than the drug use problem, but we have a class factor here, whereas most of your drug users are concentrated in lower classes

that are rather defenseless in terms of affecting policy. Your barbiturates and your alcoholism are more uniformly, the users of those drugs are more uniformly distributed, and so that we actually have here a case, although legislation is needed, probably won't be passed because of the class interest. From the information you've just heard, it would seem to us that the problem of drug addiction in the United States is much larger than the human mind can conceive, and that those who use the opiates as an escape from reality are only a small fraction of the larger problem. This sociological analysis would indicate the improper use of drugs to escape from reality is not localized in a few large urban areas. It's a medical and social disease that has spread to every livable location in the country. It's a potential Frankenstein that may well destroy its creator.

Out of control to misuse of any drug, alcohol, opiate, or barbiturate may cause the eventual destruction of the objective democratic freedom that allows this nation to exist in the madness of this present era. Next week, we will conclude this section of a sociological analysis of drug addiction when we look at more problems that face those who think that H is for joy. This transcribed program was written by Ed Vanetta and produced by Bill Oberg. This was Ted Seely speaking.

The preceding program was made available to this station by the National Association of Educational Broadcasters. This is the N-A-E-B radio network.