I understand they will keep them on an inpatient basis 4 weeks and put them on the street.

I have been working with addicts 8 years, and I can say categorically, you cannot cure an addict in 4 weeks.

The only way I think we can do it is to put them on methadone, if you are going to put them on the streets.

Problems are beginning to come up with methadone. I am personally relating to four people who have been on maintenance for as long as 5 months or a year, and they have come to the point they want to go away to college, they want to get married, and now they want to get off methadone, and it is another kind of problem.

I have no simple answer to this, but I want to put some of the things we are talking about in a general type of perspective, and I hope I have not added to the confusion, but I thought, I needed to get this on the record.

Senator CRANSTON. That is very useful. I appreciate the statement. Mr. NEWTON. My name is Roy Newton. I was stationed in Vietnam for a period of a year. I will try to be pretty brief, but I was in Vietnam, and the reason I was using drugs was because the 5th Regiment I was in, it caused one to need something to relieve the mind.

The pressure was unendurable. I needed something to relieve my mind, so I went to drugs, but the thing is, after I left Vietnam, there is no way I can get treatment.

What they should do is set up a kind of clinic prior to the month you leave, so you can go to it.

Senator HUGHES. Roy, you would be helpful to all of us if you would identify what you mean by drugs.

Mr. NEWTON. I am speaking about heroin.

Senator CRANSTON. Also, what pressures were you talking about that you felt on yourself?

Mr. NEWTON. Well, I am speaking of what kind of help you can get, it is like, when you leave, there is no way to get help.

Senator CRANSTON. I was asking about pressure you found on yourself that drove you to drugs.

Mr. NEWTON. I was, you know, facing Charlie, and the different things you do in Vietnam.

I mean, going day by day, facing Charlie, day in and day out, and you have no relief, the only relief you have is drugs.

It relieves the mind, and after a period of time you get hooked, and when you need to get ready to go home, there is no way to get unhooked. There is no clearance set up or anything.

It is just no help.

Senator CRANSTON. Did your superior officers ever become aware of the fact you were hooked?

Mr. NEWTON. My superior officers were hooked themselves, and they could not be helped.

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Senator CRANSTON. There was no help within the Armed Forces you or for them?

Mr. NEWTON. No.

Senator HUGHES. Will you identify what you mean by superior officers?

Commissioned officers or noncommissioned officers?
Mr. NEWTON. Both.

Senator HUGHES. Were both hooked on heroin?

Mr. NEWTON. Right. Out in the field, they have noncommissioned officers and commissioned officers hooked on drugs.

Senator CRANSTON. When did you leave the armed service?

Mr. NEWTON. February.

Senator CRANSTON. Did you get an honorable discharge?
Mr. NEWTON. Yes.

Senator CRANSTON. Where did you go then looking for help? Mr. NEWTON. Well, I went to the VA, and they sent me someplace else.

I went to San Francisco hospital.

Senator CRANSTON. Where did you go to the VA?

Mr. NEWTON. I went to the VA in San Francisco.

Senator CRANSTON. What did they say when you went there?

Mr. NEWTON. They just told me the only thing they could do was send me to a place where they have methadone, and that was at San Francisco hospital.

Senator CRANSTON. You went there to receive aid that was authorized by the VA?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes.

Senator CRANSTON. Then what happened there?

Mr. NEWTON. Well, hearing the story you get hooked on methadone, just like you do on heroin, I did not stay there that long.

I just went a day, and I just had to suffer for the rest of the time. Senator CRANSTON. Did the VA pay for your treatment at San Francisco?

Mr. NEWTON. No.

Senator CRANSTON. All they did was refer you there instead of doing anything for you?

Mr. NEWTON. Right. Well, I got to the point, I got so bad, I had to sell drugs myself in order to get the money to take care of my habit. I had to push drugs in order to get mine, to make a profit off it, in order to survive.

Senator CRANSTON. What did you eventually do to get help; did you finally find help?

Mr. NEWTON. No, I just stopped.

I suffered about a week with no sleep, just stopped.

Senator CRANSTON. You were able to stop totally on your own?
Mr. NEWTON. Right.

Senator CRANSTON. How long had you been on it?

Mr. NEWTON. About a year.

Senator CRANSTON. Was the screening process done by the customs service when you came back at all adequate in terms of finding people that were on drugs?

Mr. NEWTON. No.

Senator CRANSTON. Do you think it is important that be done more effectively?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes, very important. They should set up a clinic prior to your leaving, so you can be ready.

Senator HUGHES. When did you go to Vietnam?

Mr. NEWTON. In 1969.

Senator HUGHES. When did you start taking drugs? After you got there? Were you taking drugs before you got in the service?

Mr. NEWTON. No.

Senator HUGHES. You started after you got to Vietnam?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes.

Senator HUGHES. Did you go directly to heroin, or did you go from marihuana?

Mr. NEWTON. Direct to heroin.

Senator HUGHES. Were you smoking it or shooting it?

Mr. NEWTON. Shooting it.

Senator HUGHES. How did you conceal it?

Mr. NEWTON. I just kept my sleeves down.

Senator HUGHES. How did you conceal it when you were discharged? Mr. NEWTON. Your discharge date, they just walk you through. Senator HUGHES. You have no physical when you are discharged? Mr. NEWTON. No, none whatsoever.

Senator HUGHES. If you had had a broken something or other, they would not have cared about it?

Mr. NEWTON. Definitely not. They don't have nothing set up.

Senator HUGHES. Or a heart murmur or anything else, you were given no physical at all?

Mr. NEWTON. No, not before leaving Vietnam.

Senator HUGHES. They did not even feel you to see if you were warm?

Mr. NEWTON. Not when I was leaving Vietnam.

Senator HUGHES. How much heroin were you using in Vietnam? Mr. NEWTON. Day by day?

Senator HUGHES. Day by day, yes.

Mr. NEWTON. Well, when I first started, it was a small amount, and it got larger, and it was very easy to get.

Senator HUGHES. Where did you buy it there?

Mr. NEWTON. Well, they have like, kids coming in, and they are filling sandbags, different things, odd jobs, and they bring it in. Senator HUGHES. Where were you stationed?

Mr. NEWTON. I was stationed by Hue.

Senator HUGHES. When you got out on leave, where did you go on leave?

Mr. NEWTON. I went to Hong Kong.

Senator HUGHES. Were you able to support your habit in Hong Kong?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes.

Senator HUGHES. How did you support it there?

Mr. NEWTON. They have bars you go to.

Senator HUGHES. Pretty well known, the word passes down the line where you get it?

Mr. NEWTON. They will come up to you, because you are an American, they will come up to you and ask you.

Senator HUGHES. What was your habit costing you in the service? Mr. NEWTON. About $30, $40 a day.

Senator HUGHES. How were you supporting it?

Mr. NEWTON. Well, at that time, you know, I was just supporting it. Senator HUGHES. You did not get paid that much?

Mr. NEWTON. No, but you know

Senator HUGHES. Were you stealing?

Mr. NEWTON. I was stealing.

Senator HUGHES. Stealing and selling both?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes.

Senator HUGHES. Did you happen to buy any from the Vietnamese police?

Mr. NEWTON. No.

Senator HUGHES. When you came home, what did your habit cost you in the States?

Mr. NEWTON. When I came home, I went to kick, because you know

Senator HUGHES. You wanted to clean up?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes; I knew it was going to cost more, and I could not afford it, because I did not have a job, so, like I said, I went to the VA as soon as I came out.

I went to the VA.

Senator HUGHES. What outfit were you in in Vietnam?
Mr. NEWTON. I was with the 101st Airborne Division.
Senator HUGHES. Airborne ?

Mr. NEWTON. Right.

Senator HUGHES. You were a combat rifleman?

Mr. NEWTON. No.

Senator HUGHES. Medic, or what was your capacity?

Mr. NEWTON. At first I was, sir, I was a surveyor out in the field. Senator HUGHES. Surveyor?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes.

Senator HUGHES. Did you ever know of any accidents related to drug problems, ever hear of any?

Mr. NEWTON. No.

Senator HUGHES. Due to the pressure to stop drugs by the officers, were any officers murdered as a result of that effort in any of the areas?

Mr. NEWTON. They have shakedowns, but that is the furthest they went.

Senator HUGHES. Were there any officers killed in the 101st by grenades going under the tent, or placed under the pillows, anything like that?

Mr. NEWTON. Some have occurred.

Senator HUGHES. They did occur while you were there?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes.

Senator HUGHES. In relationship to your habit in Vietnam, and your habit here, would you have quit drugs had you had a chance in Vietnam, or would you have just kept going anyway?

Mr. NEWTON. I would have quit, but it was so easy to get, and I was hooked, you know, you just cannot quit.

Senator HUGHES. Were you still enjoying it, or were you sick enough to want to get off?

Mr. NEWTON. I was sick enough to want to get off, but I just could

not.

Senator HUGHES. You faced cold turkey apparently later?

Mr. NEWTON. Right.

Senator HUGHES. But you knew you had to here, because that $30 a day habit in Vietnam would cost you $250 here?

Mr. NEWTON. Right, and I could not afford it.

Senator HUGHES. Did you try other drugs, substitutes, or did you use booze or what?

Mr. NEWTON. Reds.

Senator HUGHES. Reds, is that a drug? Is it an up?

Mr. JUHL. It is a barbiturate. It is a down.

Senator HUGHES. Where were you getting those as a bridge, same places?

Mr. NEWTON. I was just buying them off the streets.

Senator HUGHES. They are available anywhere, like chewing gum almost?

Mr. NEWTON. Yes.

Senator HUGHES. You were there from 1969 into 1970.

What month did you come home in 1970?

Mr. NEWTON. In June.

Senator HUGHES. In testimony from Pentagon officials testifying before my own subcommittee, they indicated the heroin buildup in Vietnam really did not start until late in 1970.

They said most of it has built up in the last 6 or 7 months.
You started taking it in 1969, you testified?

Mr. NEWTON. Right.

Senator HUGHES. How many men would you estimate were using it?
Mr. NEWTON. I would say about, at least one-third of the men.
Senator HUGHES. One-third of the men were using heroin?
Mr. NEWTON. Right where I was, yes; where I was stationed.
Senator HUGHES. How could the officers not know this?
Mr. JUHL. Sir, I have something to add to this.

Senator HUGHES. Please do.

Mr. JUHL. There are people walking the streets of Washington, D.C., Sacramento, anyplace in this country, where you have very complex, very well structured law enforcement agencies, looking for heroin addicts.

It is not very difficult to hide the use of heroin, once you get into that world of heroin addicts.

As long as somebody does not find you, or you do not overdose yourself to the point of passing out, unless you really know what you are looking for, you will not be able to recognize you are a heroin addict from somebody who is a little bit sleepy, or perhaps exhausted, as GI's get day in and day out.

Senator HUGHES. Can you recognize one?

Mr. JUHL. Certainly.

Senator HUGHES. The military could develop those kind of people if they made it their business to do so?

Mr. JUHL. I would think so. The minute they become committed enough to do something about this problem.

Senator HUGHES. I agree with what you are saying. I am not trying to argue or debate with what you are saying.

I am just trying to bring up some points of necessary identification, of rehabilitation in the service, as well as in the VA, which is a part of the composite problem we face.

As you men are well aware, many men go into the service already addicted.

They are addicted on the outside, and they still get in.

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