DRUGS HEROIN PLAGUE RIFE AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN NEW YORK

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32222, 14 February 1970, Page 10

DRUGS HEROIN PLAGUE RIFE AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN NEW YORK

(HU

RICHARD SEVERO

in the “New York Times.’’)

(Preprinted by arrangement. “New York Times” News Service copyright, 1970.)

In 1960 there were 15; in 1964 there were 38; in 1967 there were 79; and last year a record number of 224 teenagers in New York shot heroin into their veins and died from it.

Of this number, 55 were 16 or younger. It was the first year in the city’s history that anyone under the age of 15 died from heroin use. Specifically, there was one 12-year-old, a 13-year-old, three 14-year-olds and 15 15-year-olds.

Nobody is quite sure how it is happening or why. Butj there seems little doubt that! children black, white and! Puerto Rican, rich, poor and in-between—are becoming in-| creasingly attracted to heroin.! The involvement of the very young was never more! apparent than last month,! when police arrested three! boys—one of them only Hi years old—on suspicion of being heroin peddlers. Police then arrested a 39-year-old | man, Victor Santiago, and ac-[ cused him of employing boys! from 11 to 15 years of age as [sellers of heroin and other drugs. ! Across Social Lines [ It was clear that the involvement was cutting across [social and ethnic lines. Isabel ; Salazar, the 12 - year - old daughter of a prominent East [Side psychiatrist, was found [on Wednesday, dazed and : bleary eyed in a West Side apartment building after a three-day drug binge. The girl [said she sees people who look I like ghosts and dots and said [this of her habit: "I take them—little blue ! pills, orange pills, green ones, [pink and icy white ones—as often as I can, day and night. II take hash, pot, L.S.D., heroin, speed, anything I can get.” [ Her parents are separated [and Mrs Salazar says she is [taking her daughter away from this country for good. “It’s a jungle,” she said. “It’s going down the drain faster than anyone realises.” The heroin problem in New York City has been building up among adults since the end of World War 11. At first, many of the addicts appeared to be musicians, odd-balls, homosexuals, and others outside society’s mainstream. But soon the problem spread and the statistics compiled by the city’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr Milton Hel[pern, make it clear that what politicians are now discovering as an epidemic has been [with us for quite some time. Between 1950 and 1954, 465 persons died of heroin use; between 1955 and 1959, the fatalities jumped to 611. The early 1960's saw an acceleration; between 1960 and 1964, [1299 died from heroin use i and between 1965 and the lend of last year 2935 died. The total deaths because of narcotics abuse since 1950 is 5310 and, ironically, the bulk of these have occurred during those years that the state and city programmes have been in existence to deal with the addiction problem. Mostly Overdoses Those who have died have suffered from overdoses in about 70 per cent of the cases. Too much heroin causes a depression of respiration and a drastic lowering of blood pressure. Others have died from hepatitis from dirty needles, from tetanus, and from bacterial endocarditis, an infection of the valves 'of the heart. Still other ' addicts, of course, have been [shot while attempting rob- > beries, have fallen out of ! i windows and off roofs and ' have died in automobile 1 crashes while “high” on ! drugs. ' But, somehow, the urgency ' of it all did not become ; apparent to many people ’ until children began to die. I The most publicised case was that of Walter Vandermeer, a 12-year-old Harlem boy, who died last December 14 and became the youngest addict-fatality ever to be recorded in the city. His problems went deeper than the attention he got from the institutions supposedly charged with caring about such things. The Vandermeer case has become something of a rallying point for those who think that more must be done. And now suddenly, politicians who were all but silent a year ago are voicing great concern iover heroin use among children and doctors are now talking of the problem as an epidemic. What constitutes an epidemic may be. arguable, but what is happening to heroin users in New York is not so arguable. But the question of what to do is embroiled in the worst kinds of acrimony. Treatment Unit One of the most active and controversial figures in the drug treatment picture at present is Dr Judianne Den-sen-Gerber, who is founder and executive director of Odyssey House, which for more than three years has attempted to rehabilitate heroin addicts by using a psychiatric approach and group therapy. [■ She became convinced that<

the problem among adolesj cents had reached the point, [where a special approach was [needed. And, so last October, she opened what she calls [the Adolescent Treatment [Unit at 955 Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx. I Neither the state nor the ' city warmed up to her ideas. ;[And, neither gave her money. | A spokesman for Lawrence [| Pierce, head of the state’s ‘Narcotic Addiction Control ■[Commission, said at the time _ | that the commission saw no 'meed for special facilities to 1 treat adolescent addicts, and '[others continue to hold this ’ same view. ’ But Dr Densen-Gerber in- ' sists that adolescents must be given special attention in their, own centres. She argues that teenagers (at least those . under 18) have long been ; separated from adults In I penal and reform systems

and she notes that pediatric, •adolescent and adult facilities all exist separately for psychiatric treatment. But as the proposals and counter-proposals go on, the problem continues to grow and to ask why is to confront an ugly and frightening proposition. It is probably true that heroin pushers have become more aggressive and ingenious in where and how they sell their wares. But it is also probably true that children are now more open to the heroin sub-culture than ever before. Some doctors say it is a fad and will pass: others feel that it is a side-effect of the social revolution that is going on in this country: but ; some, like Dr Densen-Gerber, ; feel that addiction is the by-product of a profound disillusionment the young feel ; toward their elders.