U.K. Drug Centre Criticised For Under-Prescribing

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32099, 22 September 1969, Page 19

U.K. Drug Centre Criticised For Under-Prescribing

(Bu PAMELA HARRIS, through N Z.P.AJ LONDON, Sept 19. Britain’s • system of legalised drug addiction is not succeeding, according to the head of a London addiction clinic. Mr Tony Sharpies, a former addict and head of a referral and day centre run by the Association for the Prevention of Drug Addiction in the West End, says that Britain’s official drug clinics are underprescribing for addicts and thereby creating new and serious drug problems. He bases his claims on the 200 or so registered addicts who attepd the centre, a slightly-dilapidated ground floor and basement in a building near the Covent Garden markets.

There addicts may meet and rest during the day. The A.P.A., which also stands for the Association for the Parents of Addicts, supplies them with the requirements for i their addiction as well as i cooking facilities and assur-

ance of privacy and protection from the outside world. Mr Sharpies believes that even with a legal supply of drugs and a place to retreat the addicts' problems are growing. “The clinics are not succeeding in what they intended to do—and they are having a dangerous effect on the addicts,” he says. “This is because they are under-prescribing. “It is resulting in the emergence of replacement drugs such as black market Chinese heroin and barbiturates.” (Chinese heroin, which contains strychnine, and is intended for smoking, has been reported responsible for the deaths of several addicts who injected it.) "When they began, the clinics were instructed to give minimum supplies of drugs, and addicts found themselves turning to any synthetic substitutes they could find. “If they want anything the addicts want heroin—more heroin.

“They want a dose that bears a more realistic relationship to what they need.

“What they are getting is only partly what they need. The other part is What society wants them to have. “The Government centres are, in fact, responsible for the increase in black market heroin. And indirectly they have caused deaths through people using black market Chinese heroin or barbiturates to which, if they’d had enough heroin, they would not have had to resort. “It is a disastrous turn of events and a dangerous problem.

“The British system of maintaining the addict legally has been considered the finest in the world and the envy of many countries. “But while the clinics are under-prescribing they are not giving the addict what he needs.

“This means he is not getting the benefit of the British system because the benefits of the system is that with legal supplies of drugs, the addict is protected from exploitation and corruption. Crime Unnecessary “He does not have to rob or steal to get money to buy drugs. “He does not have to get them from black market pushers—therefore there are no pushers. “He does not have to get infections from dubious drugs

“And the emptying of the drug black market and elimination of pushers should make organised crime, most of which depends on narcotics, difficult to institutionalise.

“Under - prescription of drugs to addicts has destroyed most of these advantages and complicates the drug problem in Britain.

“Instead of eliminating crime, under-prescription has meant that junkies are turn- , ing to crime to get more stuff.

“Instead of eliminating the pusher it makes a ‘created’ pusher. “For the first time there is Chinese powdered heroin. It was not evident here before 1968. “And there is organised crime coming in—and health risks. “These are the very things the British system is trying to obviate—and at the moment it is just not working.” Mr Sharpies says he has no difficulty supporting his claims. He simply indicates the crowded basement room of addicts “fixing” and drowsing. Many of them have heavily bandaged arms. “That is from ulceration and abscesses caused by using impure drugs,” he says.

“Most commonly it is Chinese heroin, and it should not have to happen here.” The day centre was established in Covent Garden a year ago. It is open only to registered addicts as a place to meet and rest. Most of London’s West End addicts are homeless. Parent’s Concern

The A.P.A. itself was created after the mother of an addict wrote a letter to the “Guardian” newspaper appealing to parents of addicts to do something about the drug problem. The Association of the Parents of Addicts was formed. It later became the Association for the Prevention of Addiction and now provides more than 30 centres offering advice, help, shelter and public education on the drug problem in general. Mr Sharpies, a journalist before he became an addict, is a firm believer in good publicity as a means of helping addicts and encouraging public understanding of their problem. “Drug addicts are their own worst enemy because they are not very good at public relations,” he says. “The public sees the worst and thinks everyone is like that. Ideas become distorted. “There are about 3000 registered addicts in Britain. About 1500 of them are keeping cool, working, and probably very few people realise they are junkies.

“Most heroin addicts are aged under 30 and have come from middle-class homes. Most are well educated to Alevel (matriculation) standard. “They usually start taking heroin in the post-adolescent period when they are trying to adjust to society and handle relationships out of school and the family environment. “If they have difficulty in this the drugs they may try just for kicks can become their addiction. “For although the basis of heroin, unlike other drugs, is not a mental but a physical kick, it affects the oersonality, and involves a reduction of dependencies. “If a person has found difficulty making friends, he finds he no longer cares if he has friends or enemies. He does not want to compete. He feels cool and complete.

“He has found an answer and become sufficient to himself. He has dropped out. “He doesn’t need, sex very much at all. Whilst on drugs his need is about a tenth of a normal person. A junkie with his drugs is quite complete.” To help addicts seek a cure, the A.P.A. believes in providing them with physical needs such as rest and food—and letting them make up their own minds. • “We have found that when their physical condition improves they begin looking for ( a cure themselves,” Mr Sharoles said. “We are making a study and compiling a- report on this, for the aspects of physical improvement and cure have not been fully documented before.” Problems After Cure But cure is relatively easy when compared to the problems of rehabilitation for the drug addict. After he had “kicked the habit,” Mr Sharpies spent sev- 1