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

54^when they know that the cyclazocme was taken on that particidarday.One sohition to this problem of drug dehvery would be the developmentof a long-acting antagonist, preferably one which ^\ould beefi'eetive for periods of weeks or months, which would both preventreaddition and also extinguish his conditioned deju-adence on opiateswithout the need for his daily cooperation. Such long-acting compoundshave been developed for other medications. Bicillin is a formof penicillin which lasts for up to a month. Prolixin enanthate is atranquilizer which is effective uj) to 3 weeks. And there are otherkinds of medications in other fields of medicine that have been developedin long-acting forms. And a long-acting narcotic antagonistwould not only vastlj^ increase its therapeutic usefulness but also itwould provide the possibility^ of immunization against addiction if itwould he used in patients who are subjects of a high-addiction potential.Mr. Perito. Is this m terms of a vaccine, Doctor?Dr. Resnick. You might call it a vaccine. I do not like the term"vaccine" because vaccine implies something different than what I amtalking about. Vaccine implies the development of antibodies withinthe system and I am talking about a medication that is effective overa long period of time.Now, it is of special and particular interest that a long-actingformulation could serve both as a prophylactic as well as a therapeuticuse. As you are aware, heroin use has become so rampant in some urbancenters that it is progressively affecting younger and younger candidates.Deaths in teenagers ^hich were once rare, are now becomingcommonplace. And a long-acting narcotic antagonist — perhaps imbeddingit m a plastic-like substance which can be imbedded in thebody and then gradually release the medication—could render iteffective for periods of up to months.By using such a formulation early in highly exposed populations, itcould drastically reduce both the deaths and the addiction rates andalso provide a basis for active prophylaxis, particularly in youngpeople.Recently the New York Times reported that among the 300,000U.S. servicemen m Southeast Asia, 1,000 became newly addicted toopiates, to heroin, during 1970.I have with me an article from this week's Time magazine, datedJune 7, and I would like to quote from this article.Between 10 percent and 15 percent of U.S. troops in Vietnam have developed aheroin habit. That represents from 26,000 to 39,000 Americans hooked. Someestimates are even liigher, 20 percent or more, which means upward of 50,000 GIaddicts. These figures were brought back by retiring Army Secretary StanleyResor from a recent visit to Vietnam and were repeated last week in a studyconducted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee bj'^ Republican CongressmanRobert H. Steele.Chairman Pepper. And Mr. Murphy of Illinois, who is a memberof our committee, and is here with us today.Dr. Resnick. How do you do, su\Now, I would suggest and recommend strongly the distribution ofcyclazocine to all soldiers in the narcotic endemic zones as a means ofeffectively curtailing this epidemic of addiction. This can be done ina fashion similar to our use of atabrine for malaria during WorldWar II.