Narcotics research, rehabilitation, and treatment. Hearings, Ninety ...
Share Embed Flag
Download ePaper

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

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

library.whnlive.com
from library.whnlive.com More from this publisher
12.07.2015 Views

446Dr. Brown. T notice the ])icture on the back of the wall. Theremust be -;everal people there who tried the long shot and lookedawfully sadChairman Pepper. So in the public interest, a few more experimentsmio'ht make all the difference. If I recall correctly, up until penicillinand some of these antil)iotics came along, the thing they had to treatsyphilis with was No. 606, and as I understand it, the reason it hasthe name No. 606, is the 606th experiment was the one tliat jn'ovedsuccessful. If they had stoi)i)ed at 605—if somebody said that is toofar out—we would not have liad any remedy for syphilis until the antibioticscame along.Now, why should a big Nation like this be deniethink you ought to i)rovide $25 million more a year to NI^I^I or $50million or a $100 million which is a very picayunish sum compared tc^the expenditures of this Nation and the gravity of this i)roblem andthe cost of this jiroblem to this country. But we have to have some sortof a factvuil basis.If we could say that Dr. Brown of NIMH said if he had $25 millionmore a year or $50 million more a year, he could follow a lot of promisingleads that might possibly result, in something much better thanwhat we now have, it would support our recommendation. You and theother ])eople who have testified here told us about methadone. It isnot appropriate to everybody. In fact. Dr. Dole told us in New Yorkthat it is only adapted really to the hard-core addict and Dr. Edwardshere this morning suggested that everybody should not have methadone.You should examine the recii)ient or the prospective recii)ientbefore you begin to give it to him. And it is addictive and it may havecertain side effects.You do not know yet what may be the long-term effects of its use.So, you have to keei) on trying to refine this product, and maybe,find others. Do you think, on the whole, methadone is the best thingwe have now?Dr. Brown. I think it is the most promising practical treatmentthat we have available.Chairman Pepper. All right, Now, then, the |)roblem is to try tofind something better that has less faults or less objectionable attributes,and our curiosity is h(n\' we are going to develop in the nationalinterest these new products.

447Lot nie ask you first, is tlic drug industiy coming up with anythingnew? Does it look Hke they are hkely to come up with anything thatwill be safe and effective in the inunediate future?Dr. Browx. I think that the drug industry has ex[)ertise in severalpromising developments. 1 am not personally expert on this subject.Again, I do not know whether Dr. Martin has anything to contributeon this.Would you care to comment. Dr. Martin, on what j^ou think thedrug industry might be able to provide us on this?Dr. Martin. It is my personal opinion that, at this time, the drugindustry has not made, and as far as I can see, will not make a heavycommitment to an effort directed toward the treatment of drugaddicts.Chairman Pepper. Well, then, I guess the perfectly reasonable andunderstandable reason is that they have to make a profit to surviveand they can only i)ut a certain amount of money in research and theymust have some probabilities of return and the like.The drug houses do have a lot of laboratory facilities and |)ersonnel,I su[)i)ose, capable of competent research. But some of the neededresearch has no profit i)otentialI have been toying with this idea: The Federal Government mightsay, all right, we will put up luilf the money or we will j^ut ui) twothirdsof it with the understanding that if this thing turns out to beno good, no profit, then you do not repay us but if you ever make aprofit out of this thing, the first profit has to come to us. You have tol)ay the Government back because we risked capital with you.Do you suppose that would have any incentive upon the j)rivatetlrug industry?Dr. Brown. Yes; I am i)leased that you are ex])loring tliis becauseit is a very difficult area that involves patents, ])rofits, and yet thejiroblem is so serious that the ])otential research capacity of the drugindustry should be exploited, and I mean exploited in the best senseof that term.Chairman Pepper. I would like you, as head of NIMH, to havesome money available, to place it with them under pioper restrictionsand safeguards. Say to them, "We will share with you some all-out,some long-shot projects and programs with the understanding that wehave a ])roper agreement that the first profit you make out of this wdllrepay us for the amount of money that we put in it. The rest of it youkeep. W^e will not insist on the patents or anything like that. We justwant our money back."Well, noAv, that is one area where we could stimulate competentresearch. W^hat about the universities and the colleges? What aboutthem as a i)ossible source of the development of new leads?Dr. Brown. Y"es; tliis would be a prime place that one could lookto for study, research, exploration, knowledge, new leads, et cetera.If you had couched the question in terms of how would you expend xamount of money, what would you do and what would be the return,that would be a fair question.Chairman Pepper. How much money do you now have availableto give by way of encouraging research to the colleges and universities,in the drug area?

447Lot nie ask you first, is tlic drug industiy coming up with anythingnew? Does it look Hke they are hkely to come up with anything thatwill be safe <strong>and</strong> effective in the inunediate future?Dr. Browx. I think that the drug industry has ex[)ertise in severalpromising developments. 1 am not personally expert on this subject.Again, I do not know whether Dr. Martin has anything to contributeon this.Would you care to comment. Dr. Martin, on what j^ou think thedrug industry might be able to provide us on this?Dr. Martin. It is my personal opinion that, at this time, the drugindustry has not made, <strong>and</strong> as far as I can see, will not make a heavycommitment to an effort directed toward the <strong>treatment</strong> of drugaddicts.Chairman Pepper. Well, then, I guess the perfectly reasonable <strong>and</strong>underst<strong>and</strong>able reason is that they have to make a profit to survive<strong>and</strong> they can only i)ut a certain amount of money in <strong>research</strong> <strong>and</strong> theymust have some probabilities of return <strong>and</strong> the like.The drug houses do have a lot of laboratory facilities <strong>and</strong> |)ersonnel,I su[)i)ose, capable of competent <strong>research</strong>. But some of the needed<strong>research</strong> has no profit i)otentialI have been toying with this idea: The Federal Government mightsay, all right, we will put up luilf the money or we will j^ut ui) twothirdsof it with the underst<strong>and</strong>ing that if this thing turns out to beno good, no profit, then you do not repay us but if you ever make aprofit out of this thing, the first profit has to come to us. You have tol)ay the Government back because we risked capital with you.Do you suppose that would have any incentive upon the j)rivatetlrug industry?Dr. Brown. Yes; I am i)leased that you are ex])loring tliis becauseit is a very difficult area that involves patents, ])rofits, <strong>and</strong> yet thejiroblem is so serious that the ])otential <strong>research</strong> capacity of the drugindustry should be exploited, <strong>and</strong> I mean exploited in the best senseof that term.Chairman Pepper. I would like you, as head of NIMH, to havesome money available, to place it with them under pioper restrictions<strong>and</strong> safeguards. Say to them, "We will share with you some all-out,some long-shot projects <strong>and</strong> programs with the underst<strong>and</strong>ing that wehave a ])roper agreement that the first profit you make out of this wdllrepay us for the amount of money that we put in it. The rest of it youkeep. W^e will not insist on the patents or anything like that. We justwant our money back."Well, noAv, that is one area where we could stimulate competent<strong>research</strong>. W^hat about the universities <strong>and</strong> the colleges? What aboutthem as a i)ossible source of the development of new leads?Dr. Brown. Y"es; tliis would be a prime place that one could lookto for study, <strong>research</strong>, exploration, knowledge, new leads, et cetera.If you had couched the question in terms of how would you expend xamount of money, what would you do <strong>and</strong> what would be the return,that would be a fair question.Chairman Pepper. How much money do you now have availableto give by way of encouraging <strong>research</strong> to the colleges <strong>and</strong> universities,in the drug area?

logo

products

Resources

Company

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Cookie settings
Imprint
Change language
Made with love in Switzerland
© 2024 Yumpu.com all rights reserved

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!