Word: heroines
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...method is the so-called "British system," based on the operating premise that heroin addiction is a sickness, not a crime. As originally conceived, the system allowed British physicians who were convinced that complete withdrawal would endanger the addict's physical and mental health to prescribe maintenance doses of the drug. This was permitted only if the addict patient could not be persuaded to undergo a cure or enter an institution. The program had one obvious advantage: by making drugs legally available, it eliminated the addict's dependence on black-market suppliers and made it unnecessary...
...also had disadvantages. Continuing rather than curing drug addiction, it led to an increase in addict registration: the number of known heroin addicts rose from 454 in 1959 to 2,782 by 1968. The system was also subject to abuse. Some doctors grossly overprescribed heroin to addicts, who sold what they did not use. Their action forced the government to change the law in 1968 so that only specially designated consultants at certain hospitals could prescribe drugs...
Another approach to the problem of heroin addiction is the methadone maintenance program. Pioneered in New York beginning in 1964 by Drs. Vincent Dole and Marie Nyswander, the program involves switching an addict from heroin, which can cost $50 or more a day on the black market, to methadone, a synthetic substitute that can be made available legally for about 150 for a day's dosage. Administered as part of a total rehabilitation program involving counseling and therapy, methadone eases heroin withdrawal and blocks heroin's euphoric effects. This enables an addict to function normally and hold...
Many medical and legal authorities object to substituting one form of addiction for another. Others are concerned about the lack of supervision in some treatment centers. Unless the cen ters check urine samples daily, addicts can continue to use heroin. But the program has solid support among those addicts enrolled, who see in it their only hope of leading a relatively normal life. Their hope is justified by a recent study of New York's methadone program. According to Dr. Dole, 82% of those who originally enrolled in the New York program are still participating, and three-quarters...
...small, controlled therapeutic community. These residential communities first detoxify, then attempt to rehabilitate the drug user by restructuring his eqo and life pattern. Some, like California's famed Synanon, are run largely by former addicts. They accept only those who have proved their determination to kick the heroin habit, and seek to increase the addict's understanding of himself and his problems through often brutal group-encounter sessions. Others, like New York's city-run Phoenix and Horizon Houses, utilize both ex-addicts and professionals...