Word: addictions
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Like thousands of other addicts, Dan Smith spent most of his life trying to support his heroin habit. Hooked at 17, he was subsequently convicted 18 times for drug possession and related offenses. Neither fear of jail nor intensive efforts by doctors freed him from drugs. But today Smith's life is significantly different. At 42, he is married, and he recently left his job as a shoe salesman to help rehabilitate other addicts. As far as heroin is concerned, he is clean. Still, Dan Smith (not his real name) is an addict of sorts. Every morning he stops...
...Habit. For all its dramatic effects, methadone therapy still stirs strong argument within the medical profession. The debate began in 1964 when Drs. Vincent Dole and Marie Nyswander first started using the drug to wean addicts away from heroin. Methadone programs, which cost an average of $1,500 a year for each addict-as opposed to $5,000 to $10,000 for a year in prison -are operating in most major U.S. cities. About 10,000 of the country's estimated 200,000 heroin victims now participate in some form of methadone treatment; thousands more are waiting to enroll...
...macabre sort of way, they are both very funny. Trash, the first Andy Warhol factory film to be distributed commercially nationwide, is the story of a heroin addict (Joe Dallesandro) who is constantly on the verge of O. D.-ing. Perhaps this does not seem humorous in itself, but, for good measure, there is a running gag about Joe's smack-induced impotency. Paul Morrissey (who wrote, directed and photographed this epic) has structured his film around the gag; Trash is a series of boy-meets-girl-but-can't-get-it-up episodes, each one weirder than the next...
...Nemon, hypnotist and medical director, while we learn not to care about cigarettes. Arbitrarily, we are divided into groups, and I size up my leader, Dr. Gordon F. Derner. He is wearing cowboy boots and a crew haircut, and he keeps telling us to share our feelings. One addict, Arthur, admits that he has half a pack in his pocket. "Put it on the table," the doctor suggests. Reluctantly, he does. As we watch, horrified, a sincere young mod named Lana picks up the packet and shreds the cigarettes. Shaken, we head for our bunks...
...existence, and then are told that this source of goodness does not exist. This withdrawal is a very upsetting experience. Youth must turn somewhere, and drugs provide the answer. A boy seeks a replacement in his neighborhood pusher-who, incidentally, probably plays Santa for his kids, too-and another addict is created...