ADDICTION TO DRUGS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31154, 2 September 1966, Page 15

ADDICTION TO DRUGS

Exploitation In Soho (Special Crspdt. N.Z.PA.) LONDON, August 31. Young people coming to London are being "brutally exploited” by drug “pushers” in Soho, centre of London's night-life. Dr. H. M. Holden, a psychiatrist, writing in an “education” pamphlet, says the principal reason why adolescents take drugs is that they have been rejected from their families. Homeless and rootless, they come up to London in search of excitement and glamour, and can be found in the West End every night of the week. They will experiment with drugs as they did with alcohol. Few have permanent lodgings—many none at all—and no money to pay for them anvway. They spend the night in the coffee bars and clubs of Soho which offer warmth and shelter and stay open until 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. The law forbids them to sleep there so they take drugs to keep awake. Drug “pushers” provide the pills at Is a time. Many adolescents, says Dr. Holden, are aware that something is wrong and false in their world, but they are powerless to stop it. They are society’s rejects and they are no-one’s responsibility. No social agency accepts responsibility for them and the community wants to have nothing to do with them—especially if they take drugs. The adolescents are only intent on escaping from their grim reality and any attempt to help them is strongly resisted. Yet they do want friendship. Dr. Holden concluded: "Society has driven these children into this state, and now keeps them there. If one is prepared to meet them at their own level and break ordinary rules, it might be possible to make relationships with them.”