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

NARCOTICS RESEARCH, REHABILITATION, ANDTREATMENTWEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1971House of Representatives,Select Committee on Crime,Washijigton, D.C.The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 :10 a.m., in room 2325,Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Claude Pepper (chairman)presiding.Present : Representatives Pepper, Waldie, Brasco, Mann, Murphy,Rangel, Steiger, Winn, Sandman, and Keating.Also present : Paul Perito, chief counsel; and Michael W. Blommer,associate chief counsel.Chairman Pepper. The committee will come to order, please.The Select Committee on Crime today continues its hearings intothe multiple aspects of the heroin addiction crisis in the United States.In the past, ^Ye have held hearings throughout the country, and duringeach of those hearings, we have heard urgent pleas for assistance. Thisseries of hearings, which be^an last month, is designed to find the bestways of providing that assistance. It is my belief that the scientificand technical genius of America has not been fully enlisted in thelight against heroin addiction. I think that some officials are being less \than candid in their professed dedication to fight drug abuse, for \surely a nation which can send men to the moon, sustain them on themoon, and then bring them safely home, can find the means to effectivelycontrol the heroin epidemic, and find those means now.In Vietnam, where our soldiers have the benefit of every conceivabletechnological device, implements of war so sophisticated that theyexisted only in science fiction novels a few years ago, we seem incapableof helping these very same soldiers when they become enslavedin the vicious trap of drug addiction.So, we are sitting here this week to find out what the Federal Governmentand the States are doing and are not doing, what kind ofresearch is under way, what kind of treatment and rehabilitation programshave proven successful. And, to be frank, what we heard in ourhearings last month convinces me that we are not doing enough. Ourscientists are working on some new and potentially breakthroughdrugs to combat addiction, yet they are working on shoestring budgets.Upon reflection, it seems to me that we should not be surprised that solittle has been done, but, rather, given the meager resources availableto these men, that so much has been done.I also believe that the Federal Government has not assumed its fulland proper burden for combating the heroin addiction crisis. ^Vhile I(341)