Drug Abuse

• Author: By Major Charles G. Hoff, Jr.
• Pages: 04

This article contains an eztensive historical development of federal and military law governing the use and abuse of narcotics, marihuana, and other dangerous drugs. The authov stresses the legislative oveaeaction to drug abuse, particularly conceminQ marihuana, and eonoludes that (I shift in conoern, from a law enfowement approach to a medical approaoh, is in order.

I. INTRODUCTION

Sag all you wsnt about the physical hannlessneu of Mlai+juana, bts mental effects seem b be almost always incompatible uith ourkind of pgressive, ahnologieal ewihzatim. Ah& every ensineer-ing student I've knox-n vbo started umg grsni rrgulsrly m n switched to B liberal-arbs college, rhme he took up philoqhy and Oriental My8txm~ and-in many c~iei-goi hmked on rhe ChineseI Cbing bit, Hindu reincarnation philosophy. Amerran In&an prophesies and ~iimnsor sane such hamless, chaming but nulthrhile nonaem. Pot smoker8 don't bempne v i d o u , depra\,ed dop fimde, but they certainly rdl ncit mntribnte anrthing ward bmt-ing the Rvasiann in the s w race, cmng canem, or advancingBcienee and industry m any ways.

Jim Wilson

Newark, Nw

DRUG ABUSE

Jersey

I am B Captan in the U.S.

Amy, stationed ~n Vietnam, and

I have mute constienee problems shout marijuana use among my tmopi. John Sreinbeclt IV probably wasn't exaggerating when he said 75 percent of the soldiers here snake pa-, in my company I would set the figYre eiom to 1W percent. Yet I have nerm ordered B man arrested for this offense. Why should I put a blot on Be pemnent mard d a brave heking man just beeaube he amuses himelf, during hn brief respite8 fmm battle, wth B harm-le- herb?

(Name withheld by resueat)

APO San Franeiaeo,

California'*This article was adarrted from a thesis presented ta The Judge Advmate

General's School, U.S. Amy, Chsrldteiville, V:rginia, while the author w u B membm a i the Seventeenth Advaneed Coume. The opinions and mnelusions p'eented herein are those of the author and do nor n=eiiari:y represent the \iews of The Judge Advocate General's Sohool or any other governmen-tal Beenc".

**YAGC, U.S. Amy: Legal Staff Officer, Office of the Chief, Legiai=tive Liaison, Office of the Seretary of the Amy. Waahingron, D. C.; B.A.. 1955, LL.B.. 19857, Un:vernity of Texas; member of the Supreme Court ofTeras snd the United States Court of Military Appeals.

' PUTBOY., Sep. 1968, at 224.

....

The purpose of this article is to give to the military lawyer same perspective concerning drug abuse, to present some of the issues that the various disciplines hare raised, and to attempt to predict responses

The topic of drug abuse concerns an enormous area of conduct, which has received increased attention and intensified study. For Instance, by 1967, over two thousand papers were written on LSD,' a drug that did not awaken much controversy about its possible abuse until 1962.' All know from daily experience that there is a growing public concern about the abuse of drugs on college campuses,' and the problem is well recognized by the Department of Defen~e.~

In order to explore the significance of what is accepted as a growing social phenomenon, an understanding of the history of the better known drugs, their properties and uses is neces$ary. Xoreover, a chronological investigation of the historical response of the federal government in legislation to meet the problems of drug abuse is considered essential. It ail1 be helpful in this exploration to refer to the climate of opinion of the medical and sociological disciplines as well 8s the laumakers, law enforcers, and the public. Military custo'ms, laws, and regulations will be considered and juxtaposed.

Because of increasing Mnfkt in nearly every aspect of the nature of marihuana and the Constitutional issues being raised with regard to its use and abuse, it will be treated as a sepmate topic, for emphasis. Then, some contemporary issues and problems dealing with the administration of justice and related affairs in the area of drug abuse \rill be raised and explored.

Three terminologies are employed in the consideration of definitions and concepts of drug abuse. The first is legal, or what the statutes snd the courts have to say. The second is medical

' B. BARBER,

DRWS AND SOC~ETT

' Wakefield. The Xalfuc~nogms A Reportri's Obiietzvs Vtru. in LSD. THE COXSCIOLSXESS

EPPAFDIXO

Dew 49 ID. Sdamon 4.

1964).

' See, e,&, Hi-, Dmg Cse at Chz.srsdy. Thiae Years Bshrnd .\ahon. The Cavalier Daily (Unireraity of V n g m a , Charlotteiville), 4 Sar 1968, at 1. CO!. 1: id.. 8 Nav. 1968. ar 1. eol. 1 id.. 18 Nou. 1968. at 2. e d 1.

I

Memorandum fmm Alfred E. Fie, Asmilant SeeretsTy of Defense (Yanpowe~r) for Deputy Pndersecretaries of the >I~llbw Departmenti (Manpower), 25 Oet. 1967.

""..,.

169 (1967) [hereinafter cited as BAR.

-..Dl

DRUG ABUSE

and medically oriented. The third is the argot of the drug abuser and his environment."

It is to the second category, the medical and medically oriented terminology, that we look for some basic definitions and con. cepts. Regarding addiction and habituation, the Expert Committee of the World Health Organization' provides the following:'

Dmp Addiction is a state of periodic or chronic intoxication produced by the repeated oonsumption of a drug (natural or synthetic). Its characteristics include: (1) an overpowering desire or need (compulsion) tocontinue taking the drug and to obtain it by any means;'

(2) a tendency to increase the dose; (8) a psychic (psychological) and generally a physical dependence' on the effects of the drug;

(4) an effect detrimental to the individual and society. Drug habituation (habit) is a condition resulting from the repeated administration af B drug. Its characteristics include: (1) a desire (but not a compulsion) to continue taking the drug for the sense d improved well-being that it engenders;

(2) little or no tendency to increase the dose; (3) some degree of psychic dependence on the effect of

the drug, but absence of physical dependence and hence of an abstinence syndrome; (4) a detrimental effect, if any, primarily an the individual.

Tolerance is a declining effect of the same dose of a drug when it is administered repeatedly over a period of time. Thus it is necessary to increase the dose ta obtain the original degree of effect." Physicnl dependence refers to an altered physiological

I Unless other%$se noted, theae terma, within quotation marks, will come

from A Glossand of Tens Cornrnarily Csed by Cndemwrld Addtola, in D. D~AURER & V. YOGEL, X.&RCOTICS

~n-0

Waram d V n c ~ ~ 1

A. NOYEF Q L. KOLB. XODERR CLlrlclL PSYCHIATRY 473 (6th 4.

& KOLB].

KARCOT~C

ADDICIIOS 289-329(2d ed. 196%) [hewinafter c

' THE PRE!

FIIAL REPORT 101 (1~63).

' Some authoritiei take mue wth the wording "to obtain It by any means" because oi the rarity of h e c o m i ~ s ~ o n oi ~-iolent crimes ta o3tain drugs by addicts. D. MAURER & VODEL, SARCOTICS AND KIRCOTIC ADDIC-

* It la JlgTpendence. q.,

1963) [hereinafter cited BQ NOYES

Io

shte brought about by repeated ingestion or administration of a drug in order to prevent the appearance of a characteristic illness called an abstinence syndrome." The symptoms of the abstinence syndrome are pmduced by the withdranal of the drug, and are referred to as withdrawal illness or withdrawal symptoms."

Drug abuse may be defined as "when an individual takes psychotoxic drugs" under any of the follo,ning circumstances: (a) in amounts sufficient to create a hazard to his own health or to the safety of the community: or (b) when he obtains drugs through illicit channels; or (c) when he takes drugs on his own initiative rather than on the basis of professional advice."

A narcotic is a drug that produces narcwis, a condition of analgesia accompanied by stupor.'' Dangerous drugs are, wmmonly, the three classer of non-narcotic drugs that are habit forming or have a potentid far abuse bemuse of their depressant, stimulant, or hallucinogenic effect."

The fallowing section is concerned with the major drugs of abuse, their origins, medical properties, and consequences. Marihuana is reserved BS a separate topic. Following this general, medically oriented discussion is a treatment of the legal history of the major drugs of abuse.'

Id.

MAURER & VOOEL 84-81

'' A pryehotoxie drug in m y ehemieai subitanee capable of adducing mental effrta which lead ta abnormal (mind poisoning) effecta PREBI-DENT'S ADYlSORY COMM'N ON SARCOTIC AFD Dnuo ABUSE, FINAL REPORT1 (1963).

Id. at 2.

L. Gommx & A. GILMAN, TXE PHARMACULOO~C~~LBASIS OF THERAPECTIC# 20 (2d ed. 1955) [hereinafter cited as GOODMAN

& GILMAN]

AXD ADM~~.ISTRITIO)I

ABUSE 4 (1961)

Some footnotes contained herein, especially referring to pmbieme, inch88 eampua drug abuse; subj&ve expeneneel. iveh BP nLh LSD; and trear-menr 01 maintensnee, such as mrh methadone. ahould be conmdered illu~. trative only. For the reader interested In more in.depth preaentatmn, B eopy of the mabridged thesrs 18 mailable an loan fmm The Judge Advocate General's Sehwl.

1W

JUSTICE. TASK FORCE

PRESIDEIT'S

COIIM'X OK LAW EWFOROEIIEXT

OF

REPORT: Na~corlcs

AXD DRVO

11. MAJOR DRUGS OF ABUSE

A. NARCOTICS AND COCAINE

1. The Opiates

And the wild regrets, and the bloody wests gone knew IO weil as I:For he -,ha lives mom lives than me,Mare des*ths than one must die.

Oecar WYilde

Ballad of Reading Gaol Part 11, Stanza 37

If your good friend came to you one day, in ail seriousness, and confided his first encounter with heroin as his most exquisite experience, filled with terrific delight, and a degree of euphoria probably unequaled in human experience, how would you react?

That is the way it ha! been described."

Opiates are sedative drugs derived from opium or made syn-thetically with opium-like characteristics." Crude opium is derived fmm the poppy. Papaver somnifemm; the plant juice from the lanced ripe poppy is wllected and dried." Opium production WBB

a well-knou-n art as early as 7000 B.C. It wa! used medicinally by the Egyptians, Persians and Greeks. The...