San Francisco's Drug Addicts

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31785, 16 September 1968, Page 2

San Francisco's Drug Addicts

The sight of young drug-addicts slumped in the gutter or sprawled on the road in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, is a memory Mrs F. W. K. Humphreys, of Christchurch, is not likely to forget.

They were the “junkies” who had come out of their trips into fantasy and were suffering the let-down before the wild craving for their next “fix” set it.

They were the most pathetic creatures she had seen in any part of the world, she said in a recent interview, and Mrs Humphreys has made eight extensive overseas tours in the last 30 years.

“We saw many others along Haight Street and Ashbury Street ‘high on the stuff,’ as they call it, looking quite exalted with glazed expressions in their eyes. They were dancing on the road or making love in public,” Mrs Humphreys said. A motorist had to drive very slowly to avoid them and the others, who were so helpless their friends had to drag them out of the way, she said.

Mrs Humphreys was told by a friend who had made a study of narcotic-addiction in San Francisco that special hospitals were full of brokendown drug addicts. Venereal Disease Venereal diseases were also rife in this section of the community, she said. “It is very sad to see young people making such a mess of themselves—and there are hundreds of them doing just this. They are wasting the best years of their lives in sloth, unable to work and unfit for parentage, though they are bringing children into the world. “Their filth is indescribable —their long hair hangs down like streaks of candle grease. "Many of them commit suicide in despair when they cannot get hold of enough money to buy the amount of dope they eventually need,” she said.

The "hopeless breed” were often sons and daughters of well-to-do parents who had rejected them. Now in revolt

against all authority, the addicts were drifting towards early death or insanity. “Many of the girls are prostitutes who keep their boyfriends on their earnings,” she said. “But some of the community receive remittances from their parents.” Living By Theft Others lived by theft They would steal anything they could sell to buy a “fix.” They soon got into the clutches of narcotic pedlars and other criminals.

A spirit of fellow-feeling and loyalty prevailed in the “junkie” district Those who could afford it would discard their worn-out clothes on a heap on a street comer for others in greater need. From this pile of tattered sweaters, jeans and monk-like robes the destitute would take their pick. Leftover food was also dropped in bags at certain points for the hungry. The Flower Children of San Francisco, who had not become drug-abusers themselves, were moving out of Haight-Ashbury. They had grown tired of being sponged on by imnecunious “hippies.” "The Flower Children are harmless enough. Their original aim, I understand, was to love everyone in a world of hate. They go about San Francisco in stark white make-up with dead-pan expressions, trying to look happy,” she said. “You also see them on the

streets of Vancouver, In Acapulco (Mexico) and sleeping on the beaches at night in Honolulu—sometimes with small babies.” “Wasting Life” These young people were also wasting “the real bloom” of their youth in laziness, she said. “We did not see any Flower Children or ‘Junkies’ in South America. The young there have to work hard, just for a living. The other cults apparently belong to affluent societies,” she said. “New Zealanders who say ‘this kind of thing can’t happen here’ should think again.” Mrs Humphreys, who is known for her colour slides taken on world tours, said the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco was one place she had not recorded on film.

"I felt I could not put this tragic mess on celluloid,” she said. On their most recent tour, Mr and Mrs Humphreys spent most of their time aboard a Norwegian freighter on a four-month cruise of 34 ports.

Fellow travellers were 10 Americans—eight Republicans and two Democrats.

“There was only one real political row aboard, which wasn't so bad considering the conventions of both parties were so near,” Mrs Humphreys said.