Blacks' Use Of Drugs Said Growing

Poisoning its life blood for a long time, the drug plague is no new phenomenon in the black community. But since last summer a heavy stream of heroin has spread into the Ann Arbor community, according to numerous black residents. "Around the end of school in '69 the grass (marijuana) went pretty dry so during the summer we started going to Jones (heroin)," said a 19-year-old. He went on to say that it was mostly a fad on the street and that he, along with most of nis friends, didn't actually know why they were getting "high." Most of nis experience . with hard drugs came about from association with older crowds. "You know, like a lot of the dudes who had been around for a while were doing it . . . so they turned us on to the stuff. We would toot it (take through the nose) or run it (injections into the skin) just for kicks." There are well over 200 addicts in Ann Arbor, according to Edward Pierce, a local physician who treats many heroin addicts here. Their treatment involves the use of methadone, a synthetic drug which lowers the addict's tolerance level for heroin, and allows him to function on smaller dosages. "Heroin is the number one health problem in the black community," said Dr. Pierce, "and it is growing constantly." The age spectrum averages between 18 and 25 years with most of the addicts being black males. But Dr. Pierce said he has treated addicts here as young as 15 and others well over 40. Telling about a recent experiment at the University, Dr. Pierce said research showed all animáis have the same capacity for addiction. Consequently, the greatest potential for addiction is through association. "There is also a strong correlation between the use of heroin and an unstable family tion," continued the physician. Under the influence of the drug, addicts teil Dr. Pierce that they develop an awareness of how to solve all of their problems. Everything becomes very clear and they can grasp solutions that would be workable for them; but because they know they're on the drug at this particular time they think, "I can do all of these things tomorrow when I'm straight." But tomorrow never comes. Dr. Pierce said many addicts don't feel they have any great psychological reason for taking the drug. Delving deeper into the cases, though, he usually finds some form of personal despair. "The auto plants have a very high rate of drug addiction among assembly workers," he said, "they're caught in a itrap." The ultímate effect of heroin is the total destruction of the will to achieve. Although various reports attribute the increase in crime to drugs, Dr. Pierce said that addicts in need of money to support their h a b i t s are linvolved in non-violent crime if Ithey are involved in crime at all. "An addict is oriented toward petty crime, trying to avoid any trouble with pólice at all." What leads many young black males to heroin? One addict about 23 explained his feelings. "A black person can be in one minute and out the next. It's like groping in the dark so you have to turn to something." Another youth who had "skinpopped" heroin said, "Smoking a 'joint' (marijuana) was cool but not quite good enough. Then I tried cocaine and still feit like something was missing so I tried some Jones and it really feit nice." The expense seemed to be the major incentive for an addict to want to get rid of his habit or to decrease it. "Why get off when things are still going to be bad in reality?" one youth said. Most sources agreed that the mostimportantstepin rehabilitating an addict is producing a situation that makes the person want to return to the community without a heroin crutch. "They've got to get tired of not being somebody," said a black woman who works for a local agency. "lts senseless to die from Jones; and its destroying the minds and bodies of too many of our black kids." Recently, the establishment of a drug program for education and rehabilitation was proposed by several black residents. Terry Drye, one of those persons concerned with the drug problem said that t h e y would like to set up groups for parents to receive drug education and for people and youth to talk to junkies. "The black community is going to have to come together and exposé the people who are pushing heroin." she said. Another Ann Arbor resident feit that by directing the energies of the community toward helping addicts it would help them solve some of the crime problems, and he suggested that they should work in establishing a methadone clinic for long-range treatment o f addicts. "The addict should be given options by law officials and courts of being able to enter rehabilitation programs that would offer jobs and counseling as long as they remained off the drug. Throwing them in jail doesn't solve anything so we've , got to get the cooperation of the pólice in dealing with the prob-j lem," he said. I