1.
In 1965
there were 57,199 known addicts. Using standard conversion ratios for years
past, this yields an estimated addict population of 150,000. (Bureau of
Narcotics, U.S. Treasury Department, Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous
Drugs for the Year Ending Dec-ember 31, 1965 [Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1966], p. 45.)
2.
Statement of John E. Ingersoll, Director, U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs, U.S. Department of Justice, before the National Commission on Marihuana
and Drug Abuse, New York City, February 24, 1972, p. 5.
3.
In May
1970 one research organization reported: "Until recently, middle-class drug
users almost always stayed away from heroin. In the last year there has been a
sizeable increase in various parts of the country in the number of middle-class
drug users who are willing to try heroin. . . . It is reasonable to expect that
within a few years in any community of heavy drug users a noticeable percent
will try heroin, and some smaller percent will become addicted." (Max Singer,
Project Leader, Policy Concerning Drug Abuse in New York State
[Croton-onHudson, N.Y.: Hudson Institute, May 31, 1970] 1, 27.)
4.
The
New York Times, June 11, 1971, p. 1.
5.
]bid.,
July 23, 1971, p. 1. 6.
Singer,
Policy Concerning Drug Abuse in New York State, p. 61. One Congressional
study group estimated that the national total for property stolen by heroin
addicts was $7.5 million a day, or $2.7 billion a year. (Morgan F. Murphy and
Robert H. Steele, The World Heroin Problem, 92nd Cong., Ist sess.
[Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, May 1971], erratum sheet p.
4.) 7.
In 1969
the British government reported to the U.N. that there were 2,782 known addicts
during the year 1968. Reliable sources in Great Britain feel that there may be
as many as twice that number of practicing addicts who maintain their habits
buying from registered addicts or regular pushers. (Her Majesty's Government in
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, "Report to the United
Nations," mimeographed [London, 1969], p. 5.)
8.
Whitman
Knapp, Chairman, Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption, "Interim
Report on Investigative Phase," Xeroxed (New York; July 1971 ), p. 4; The New
York Times, October 28, 197 1, p. 1. In 1968, thirty-two agents of the U.S.
Bureau of Narcotics were forced to resign after a Justice Department
investigation showed that they were selling confiscated heroin and accepting
bribes from known traffickers (ibid., December 14, 1968, p. 1).
9.
The
New York Times, June 18, 1971. 10.
Before
the eradication of illicit opium production can become completely effective,
illicit poppy fields in Afghanistan and Pakistan would have to be eliminated.
Together these two nations account for about 24 percent of the world's illicit
opium production. Although only small quantities of South Asian opium get beyond
local markets, it is quite possible
that Afghanistan and Pakistan might become America's major source of opiates if
production in Southeast Asia were eradicated. There is also a possibility that
opium might be diverted from legal Iranian and Indian production to supply
American markets once Southeast Asia's illicit production is eliminated. In this
case, it would probably be wise to urge these governments to eliminate legal
opium production (Murphy and Steele, The World Heroin Problem, p. 17; The New
York Times, July 1, 1971, p. 1).
Once legal
production in India and Iran is abolished, the international pharmaceutical
industry will have to find an alternate source of opium for the production of
medical morphine, one of the best pain killers known to modern medicine. The
Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China have been able to produce opium
for medical purposes without significant diversion, and they could become an
alternate source of supply. Also, the Tasmanian state government in Australia
has introduced large-scale mechanized poppy cultivation with fairly strict
controls, and is currently supplying several British pharmaceutical firms (see
The Nation [Australia], April 6, 1963, p. 12; A. G. Allen and B.
D. Frappell, "The Production of Oil Poppies," Tasmania Journal of
Agriculture, May 1970, pp. 89-94). 11.
The New York Times, July 24, 1972, p. 1.
12.
Newsweek, July 19, 1971, pp.
23-24. 13.
The New
York Times, July 1. 1971, p. 1.