Narcotics research, rehabilitation, and treatment. Hearings, Ninety ...

:146there are dramatic reductions in arrest. There are some other studiesof a more impressionistic nature and certainly those of us who haveclinical experience could corroborate this, that show that heroin addictswho are in the treatment programs do in a dramatic way reducetheir heroin use and that much of their criminal behavior was drivenby their need to get heroin.On the other hand, let's be clear that we are talking about a verydisadvantaged segment of the population, by and large, a group forwhich there are often few employment opportunities, a group withvery inadequate education and a group which has developed ratherconsiderable skills in hustling and illegal activities.It is therefore, hardly surprising to find that this simple matter ofputting a person in a treatment program does not in itself eliminatecriminal activity, although it clearly reduces it.Mr. Perito. I asked Dr. Gearing about her knowledge of efficacystudies of drug-free programs, the value of detached analytical studies,and similar questions about the crime reduction. Do you know of anysuch studies in the drug-free programs across the Nation so that thiscommittee can compare those results with the results of methadoneand related drug programs?Dr. DuPoNT. I think drug-free programs have tended to get involvedunnecessarily in rhetoric and politics.They tend to get more involved in this and have a hard time dealingwith failures. So they are quite resistant in general to doing thekind of studies that Dr. Gearing has done and the kind of study thatT reported here which, after all, reports something less than completesuccess.Abstinence programs have a hard time dealing with their very highdropout rates.I don't know of any published evidence of the efficacy of any drugfreeprograms that is comparable in any way with the kind of datathat Dr. Gearing has presented.On the other hand, it is my impression from visiting drug-freeprograms that they have considerable merit. The problem is that theyare not acceptable to many heroin addicts. And many people who dostart there, do drop out. So I think that any city which is thinkingabout programing for heroin addiction treatment, needs to includeabstinence or drug-free programs, but it needs some perspective interms of their efficaciousness and their acceptability to the heroinaddicts.I guess I could have answered that question by simply saying "No."Mr. Perito. Doctor, at the present time, what is vour appropriation?Dr. DuPoNT. The current appropriation for the Narcotics TreatmentAdministration is$2.2 million with an additional $2.9 millionavailable to us through Federal grants.Mr. Perito. In addition to NTA's treatment programs, are you presentlycarrying on any independent research in the opiate area ?Dr. DuPoNT. Well, our research is primarily related to two questions,reallyOne is trying to do some monitoring of the epidemic of addiction inthe District of Columbia, and the other is evaluating the performanceof our programs. We don't do any basic research into chemical alternativesto methadone, for example, or many other kinds of research.