'THE NARCOTIC FARM' EXPLORES EARLY DAYS OF DRUG WAR -- WITH A CAPTIVE
TEST AUDIENCE
Author: Carlo Wolff, Special to the Times
Note: Carlo Wolff is a freelance writer from Cleveland.

St. Petersburg Times (FL)
14 Dec 2008
http://www.sptimes.com/letters/

The text of The Narcotic Farm is informative and even-handed, but the
pictures leave the deepest impression, starting with the inside
cover, a spread of "works," the needle-and-syringe combination
essential to the ingestion of opiates.

Those works are among thousands confiscated by employees of the
Bureau of Prisons and the Public Health Service, the federal agencies
that jointly administered the Narcotic Farm, or "Narco," near Lexington, Ky.

Narco ran from 1935 to 1975, when it closed amid controversy over use
of its prisoners for drug research. A multi-use facility designed in
art deco style, it straddled the '30s, when harsh sentences raised
the number of addicts imprisoned, and the '70s, when the notion of
the addict as diseased, not morally transgressive, had gained hold.

Doctors at Narco never found a cure for addiction, but they pioneered
research into methadone, the opiate blocker Nalline, even LSD. Though
giving drugs to addicts raised ethical questions (talk about a
captive population -- a willing one), the research holds, even if
most "graduates" relapsed.

It's unlikely that the real word was more pastoral than Narco's
1,000-acre tract. Its population mirrored society's, including
professionals, "country" addicts and the urbane, artistic types. Its
jazz bands must have been pips; though no recordings survive, among
the institution's alumni were trumpeter Chet Baker, drummer Elvin
Jones and saxophonist Jackie McLean.

But harboring so many addicts in one place spread a counterproductive
word: There were many new places to score, many drugs to try.
According to this fascinating book, Narco was a largely noble
experiment. The pictures -- newspaper articles, actors posing as
research volunteers and spectacular institutional photos -- speak to
its power and position in this country's tortuous approach to drug addiction.
--
The Narcotic Farm
By Nancy D. Campbell, J.P. Olsen and Luke Walden
Harry N. Abrams, 208 pages, $29.95
Image: http://www.mapinc.org/images/TheNarcoticFarmCover.jpg