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

242€are of patient addicts. We have seen some very interesting byproductsof this other than the direct treatment of addiction. We find outthat when we set up a clinic associated with a hospital, the medicalstaffs become interested in treatment of drug addiction. If we are goingto get anywhere in this field we need to bring the best brains wehave into solving this difficult problem. Methadone maintenance hasset up a climate favorable for this.Methadone is not the final answer. It happens to be the best answerwe have at this time for treatment of the hard-core heroin addict.Dr. Dole's original criteria were that the patients had to be 21 yearsof age and under 40, because there is a theory around that drug addictionburns itself out as the patient gets older.They had to have a history of mainlining heroin. They were hardcoreaddicts. They all had criminal records and had tried other programswithout success, to further confirm their serious addiction.The original program, because it was new, excluded certain conditions:alcoholism, pregnancy, mixed drug use. However, as we havegained much experience we have broadened the criteria for admission.We admit now a patient over the age of 18, there is no longer an upperage limit. We have one man 87, one 82, and a number collecting socialsecurity.We now require 2 years of heroin addiction. We are very careful tosee that the applicant is a confirmed addict.This is a voluntary program. In our experience it takes about 2years before a heroin addict is first willing to do something about hisaddiction. At the beginning the drug addict rather enjoys the highhe gets. He is a very busy individual supporting his habit by stealing.He rather enjoys that culture at the beginning. We feel it takes 2 yearsbefore he is willing to do something constructive by entering thisprogram.For this group of cases, this program has proved very successful. Ibelieve you heard Dr. Gearing. She does our evaluation. She is a verycompetent individual.I would like to review what our experience has been. Basically weliave an 80-percent retention rate in the program. We have a 20-percentdropout rate. Very few of the patients drop out of their own volition.They are usually dropped out by us for administrative reasons.These turn out to be severe alcoholics, a few get arrested early in theprogram or use other drugs.The work records are very interesting. I don't have the most recentfigures. I don't know what ejffect the present recession will have. Up toabout a year or two ago our patients were about 25 percent legitimatelyemployed when they started. At the end of 6 months, about 50percent are working and after 2 years 80 percent. For those in thejDrogram 3 years or longer, 92 percent were either working, keepinghouse, or going to school, and only 6 percent were left on welfare.Tlie arrest records in our program have been phenomenal. Dr. Gearingdid a study of arrest patterns. She took a group before they cameinto the methadone program and studied their arrest records. It showed115 arrests per 100 patients in the course of a year, 48 convictions per100 patients in the course of a year. She then followed the course ofthese patients for 4 years after they started on methadone.