DECISIVE ACTION must be taken to end America's heroin
plague.
The half-hearted half measures of the last twenty-five years have done nothing to stop the rapid spread of heroin addiction and have brought the United States to the brink of a drug disaster. In 1946 there were an estimated 20,000 heroin addicts: in the entire United States. Through the diligent efforts of organized crime, the number of addicts mounted year after year, reaching a new high of 150,000 in 1965. (1) Since 1965 there has been an unprecedented increase in addiction; statistical experts at the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics now believe that there are 560,000 hard-core heroin addicts in the United States. (2)
There is almost no town, city, race, social class, or occupational group in the United States untouched by the heroin problem. Black urban ghettos have been the major target of heroin pushers since the 1920s, but the addict population in suburban communities is growing rapidly, and the day is not far off when every large high school in America will have its own pushers. (3) Instead of taking a coffee break, a growing percentage of America's assembly line workers are slipping off to the men's room for a heroin fiX. (4) In June 1971 one medical researcher reported that 6.5 percent of fifty thousand workers tested in the previous two years were heroin addicts. (5) In Vietnam, and on U.S. army bases around the globe, the GI junkie is becoming as much a part of army life as the beerguzzling master sergeant and the martini-sipping captain.
Although heroin addicts are outnumbered by alcoholics, heroin addiction has been much more damaging to the fabric of American society. Alcoholism is usually a private problem, and the anguish extends no further than the victim, his family, and his friends. Alcohol is relatively cheap, and even the most down-and-out wino can manage to keep himself supplied. Heroin, however, is extremely expensive, and most addicts have been forced to turn to street crime for money to maintain their habits. One 1970 survey estimated that the average addict in New York State had to steal $8,000 a year for his habit, and calculated the total property lost to junkies at $580 million a year. (6) Many urban police departments believe that the majority of petty crimes, such as mugging, shoplifting, and burglary are committed by addicts in search of money. Predatory addicts have turned large sections of America's inner cities into hazardous jungles, where only well-armed police dare to venture after dark. To a large extent, the problem of crime in the streets is a heroin problem, and most of the petty violence that has aroused so much public apprehension would disappear overnight if the drug traffic were brought under control.
Obviously, something must be done, and done quickly, to deal with the heroin problem. Any attempt to eliminate the drug traffic will probably have to use one of three strategies: (1) cure the individual addicts; (2) smash international and domestic narcotics syndicates; or (3) eliminate illicit opium production. Since it is extremely difficult to cure individual addicts without solving the larger social problems and almost impossible to crush the criminal syndicates, the only realistic solution is to eradicate illicit opium production.