An Overseas GI Addiction, and its Impact Back Home
To address the addiction epidemic and resultant moral panic, President Nixon created the Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention. He also ordered further research on military personnel addiction. It revealed that the congressional fact-finders had been mistaken: things were actually worse. Instead of 15%, the true figure for self-identified addicts in Vietnam was actually 20%. This took place as America drew down its troops in Vietnam. About 1000 servicemen were sent back home each day, where most were discharged soon thereafter back into civilian life. If the addiction figures were true, it meant that hundreds of active heroin addicts were being released into the US each week. Such a huge influx of hardcore drug addicts created serious social problems.
The military changed course. Rather than rely on courts martial, treatment was emphasized. Instead of hope that addicts would self-report in the hope of “amnesty”, widespread urine testing was employed to detect heroin use. Under the new policy, American servicemen in Vietnam who tested positive for heroin were kept in theater under treatment until they dried out, before they were sent back home. There, they received further treatment in VA facilities. It was a vast improvement, and the relapse rate among those who underwent such treatment was a relatively low 5%.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Allen, Stewart Lee – The Devil’s Cup: Coffee, the Driving Force in History (2003)
Avrich, Paul – Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background (1991)
Brooklyn Eagle, December 20th, 1876 – The Inquest: How Three Hundred People Met Their Death
Collectors Weekly – Love Boats: The Delightfully Sinful History of Canoes
Cracked – 14 Moral Panics Over Historical Inventions
Encyclopedia Britannica – John Jay, United States Statesman and Chief Justice
Encyclopedia dot Com – Vietnam: Drug Use In
Gavi – The Long View: Ye Olde Anti-Vaxxers
History Collection – Unusual Historic Events That Will Make You Cringe for Days
History of Vaccine – History of Anti-Vaccination Movements
Hopkins, Keith, and Beard, Mary – The Colosseum (2005)
Kamienski, Lucasz – Shooting Up: A Short History of Drugs and War (2016)
Library of Congress Research Guides – Brooklyn Theater Fire (1876): Topics in Chronicling America
Mental Floss – 5 Historical Attempts to Ban Coffee
Moss, Candida – The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom (2013)
Murray, Robert K. – Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920 (1955)
New York Times, September 16th, 1922 – City Has Wild Night of Straw Hat Riots
New York Tribune, May 31st, 1883 – Fatal Panic on the Bridge
Pittsburgh Press, September 16th, 1910 – Straw Hat Riot
Slate – The 1922 Straw Hat Riot Was One of the Weirdest Crime Sprees in American History
Smithsonian Magazine, June 17th, 2014 – The Gory New York City Riot That Shaped American Medicine
Star Tribune, August 1st, 2013 – Canoe Craze Marked by Romance, Ribaldry
