'If I don't make it this time

To get into the Palo Alto program, an addicted vet-
eran has to demonstrate a desire to overcome his
habit. Otherwise the therapy will have no chance of
working. Chad Harris was grilled by a panel of
three addict patients and three staff members. Why
had he come to Palo Alto? Harris could only stare
at the floor and mumble, "I'm tired of hustling, has-
sling and being sick. If I don't make it this time, I'll
lose my wife, my kid. I'll have had it, man."

When the panel voted unanimously to accept
him, Harris broke down and cried. He has real con-
cern for his family, but it hardly matches the de-
votion his young wife has shown through the mis-
eries of the two years of their marriage. Debi tried
browbeating, pleading, even throwing childish tan-
trums to force him to let her take him to a long suc-
cession of doctors and withdrawal programs. Noth-
ing he tried worked.

On one last long-shot gamble, she sat down one day in front of her husband, rolled up her sleeve, and calmly mainlined her first dose of heroin. Harris couldn't stand it. He piled Debi and their 7-monthold daughter Sabrina into their '65 Dodge and drove through the night from San Luis Obispo to Palo Alto. Debi hasn't touched even an aspirin since.

Harris hasn't been that clean. He slipped once when he tried to buy a fix of heroin (many of the men in the program have done the same), but another patient turned him in. Now he is on methadone maintenance and is hooked on that. "It'll buy me some time to get my life straightened out," he says. "It's a crutch I'll use for a while. But some day I'll walk free."

The doctors expect that Chad Harris and the rest of the patients on 4B2-and the hundreds involved in other drug programs around the country -are just the tip of the iceberg. They expect that most Gls who regularly used hard drugs in Vietnam will return to civilian life with their habits intact. Along with other Gls who merely experimented with drugs while overseas, they will turn to heroin as soon as the pressures of home become intolerable. And then many of them will start showing up at places like Palo Alto seeking help.

Right now, 19 VA hospitals offer programs for addicted veterans, but President Nixon has called for the establishment of 13 more by October. He has budgeted $14 million to get them all going.

The new programs will have to draw on the experience of places like 4B2 to learn what works -and what doesn't. Dr. Jerome Jaffe, who heads the Special Action Office on drugs, believes he sees one major-and hopeful-difference between the Vietnam veterans and the street addicts here at home: "In Vietnam, it's different. There you have people beginning to use drugs in an exotic situation-with a peer group that may never associate with each other again.... It's not a part of the fabric of the lives of these men, any more than shooting people is a part of their lives. When they leave the service, hopefully they'll leave behind the identity of someone who has used heroin."

Senator CRANSTON. We will now set forth as if given, prepared statements of Senator Schweiker of Pennsylvania, who joins me in cosponsoring S. 2108 and has introduced his own bill, S. 1174, of Senator Bentsen whose bill S. 2124, is a companion to H.R. 9265, and of E. H. Golembieski of the American Legion.

These hearings are now recessed subject to the call of the Chair. At the next hearings, we hope to hear from Dr. Jaffe, Director of the new Special Action Office on Drug Abuse Prevention. Without objection, at this point in the record, I order to be printed all prepared statements and other pertinent materials submitted for the record.

The hearing now stands in recess, subject to the call of the Chair. (Whereupon, at 12:30 p.m. the Subcommittee on Health and Hospitals of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs adjourned, subject to reconvene at the call of the Chair.)

(The material referred to above follows:)

STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD S. SCHWEIKER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA

It is a privilege to present before today's hearing of the Health and Hospitals Subcommittee of the Veterans' Affairs Committee my views on the crucial subject of rehabilitation and treatment of servicemen afflicted with drug addiction. I was privileged to serve in the last Congress on the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare under the outstanding leadership of the chairman of this subcommittee (Mr. Cranston), and am pleased he is continuing his same innovative and imaginative approach on the new full Veterans' Affairs Committee. In addition, I am honored to serve with the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics (Mr. Hughes), who has provided important leadership in the entire field of narcotics and alcoholism rehabilitation. Earlier this year, I introduced my own bill, S. 1174, the Veterans' Drug Rehabilitation Act of 1971, to amend the veterans benefits eligibility requirements to permit drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation at veterans' medical facilities for servicemen discharged under conditions less than honorable for reasons of drug abuse. My bill simply amended the section of the United States Code that required an honorable discharge for veterans benefits eligibility and waived this requirement for drug abuse medical and rehabilitation treatment where the reason for the less than honorable discharge was drug abuse.

The bill under consideration, S. 2108, introduced by Senator Cranston, is a comprehensive veterans drug and alcohol rehabilitation and treatment measure, which includes the principle of VA drug abuse treatment for all veterans, and I heartily endorse the bill, and am privileged to be a cosponsor of it,

At this point, I would also like to point out my cosponsorship and strong support of Senator Cranston's amendment No. 252 to his bill, to provide for "absolute medical confidentiality" for information divulged by any veteran in a medical conference during the treatment and rehabilitation process, unless the veteran is a danger to himself and others.

In my view, medical confidentiality lies at the heart of our drug rehabilitation programs among servicemen, whether in or out of active duty service. Whatever the reasons for the shocking increases of drug use, abuse, and addiction among servicemen, the fact remains that we have today a most serious problem verging on crisis proportions. Testimony before our alcoholism and narcotics subcommittee indicates that one factor involved in drug use among servicemen in Vietnam, where the problem is the most severe, is the cheap cost and easy availability of heroin and other addictive drugs. However, back in the United States, heroin is neither readily available or cheap, and returning veterans, to maintain their habit, must inevitably fall prey to the vicious pushers in our society who have wrecked so many lives. In order to prevent a single serviceman from being pushed into a life of crime and drug addiction, we must take every possible step to encourage them to identify themselves now and seek treatment, so that they can be law-abiding and productive members of society.

Therefore, I feel we must remove every form of threat of criminal and Uniform Code of Military Justice jurisdiction, which could hinder rehabilitation treatment. If a serviceman or veteran is at all concerned that information he reveals in his medical conferences could be turned against him in a criminal prosecution, this could be a serious deterrent to his seeking help in the first place. We cannot afford to have a single serviceman go into civilian society as a drug addict because of this fear.

I agree with Senator Cranston that our military drug programs must have exactly the opposite effect: we must insure that all servicemen know that they will be protected from criminal self-incrimination during each and every phase of their drug rehabilitation program. To allow any less is to signal less than a full-scale commitment to end drug dependency among our servicemen and our veterans. It should be made clear that this form of amnesty is granted only to information disclosed in the course of medical treatment and counseling. A serviceman will still be liable for criminal action for any illegal acts which are discovered through other routine sources. The point of amnesty in the drug program is, however, that no information revealed through the drug program will be held against the individual. This is the only way to obtain full participation by all servicemen using drugs, and to help prevent the discharge of drug addicts into civilian life.

Drug addiction in society is a dangerous cancer. It leads to the breakup of families, it leads to violent street crime by addicts who need immediate cash to supply their habit, and it leads to weakness in our national character and moral fiber. We cannot afford to allow this problem to grow more serious, but must make the investment now in money, manpower, and programs, at the Federal, State, and local level, to successfully combat it and to develop comprehensive rehabilitation programs.

President Nixon deserves considerable credit for putting the resources and prestige of the Federal Government behind this drug rehabilitation priority. I am proud to cosponsor a number of important administration proposals in this area, such as the proposal to create a Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention in the Executive