and pass the necessary legislation, we could reach all of the factors? Would this do anything to stop the input into the drug scene?

Dr. SOLOMON. I feel quite optimistic about that, Senator Hughes. I think that if we really were able to do all we are able to do, we would be capable of helping a vast majority of these people. There still will be some who are essentially chronically ill from the problem, perhaps 20 percent, something of that sort. I don't know.

But I do think that we will be able to be of enormous service to many and most. A great many of these young people have a lot going for them, too, in that they are bright and concerned and young.

I might just say, though, a little in contrast to what Dr. Cohen said, sometimes one finds an older addict is more motivated to give up than the younger one, in the sense that he has really seen the horrors of what addiction can do over the years.

We have had some older veteran addicts who have been very helpful, when put in with the younger people, because they will tune the younger people in on what is in store for them; whereas, the people who have had a short addiction may think it is a kick, and the horror of what it is going to do to their lives is not realized. The people who are short-term addicts do not always have high motivation to stop.

Senator HUGHES. The staff wanted me to inquire for the record about the VA staff pay scales in relation to the personnel you were talking about, and what you thought of that in competition with the civilian

sector.

Dr. SOLOMON. I am very glad you asked the question, Senator.

I think they are very noncompetitive. I also feel that the sorts of programs that I am describing have been developed in conjunction with the medical schools. I think the VA was extremely wise and foresighted in making strong affiliations with the medical schools.

The medical schools are having a great deal of difficulty with their VA affiliations now because they are going through a very difficult period themselves. If we are going to get more research, I feel it depends on the medical school affiliations with the VA, because the people who are most attracted to sacrifice pay for service are those who are going to be within academic settings. I think these affiliations should be strengthened.

In many ways the VA has not adequately been supportive of the medical school affiliations, also, the VA has not implemented what is called "sharing" within psychiatry unlike some other specialties. There was a law passed by Congress that enables the VA to share its resources with community and university resources. There is not a single sharing program within psychiatry. Our request at Stanford was turned down. Also, the VA does not have a good record of liaisons with community centers nor of the establishment of halfway houses and outpatient rehabilitation service.

In terms of professional staff, I also feel that pay scales aren't competitve. Professionals are in such short supply. Without increasing training where are we going to get them, even if we have the money? Senator HUGHES. To what extent do you think recovered addicts can be used in recovery programs?

Dr. SOLOMON. I think they have an extremely useful role, yet we have difficulty within the VA hiring them.

Senator HUGHES. That is the next question I was going to ask.

Dr. SOLOMON. We have trouble hiring people who have been patients. We would not be able to hire somebody who had a dishonorable discharge. There are many limitations put on the VA because it is through Civil Service.

We have a great deal of difficulty hiring the people we want because of the existing Civil Service regulations.

Senator HUGHES. Do you think there should be some modification of that?

Dr. SOLOMON. Yes; I do.

Sonator HUGHES. Would it alleviate the staffing problem if some of this work could be done through people you might train, people who have been through the mill?

Dr. SOLOMON. Yes; I think that would aid a great deal of work, but that doesn't mean that professional staff doesn't have to be in the leadership. It requires psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses, and one cannot completely run programs without professional personnel.

Senator HUGHES. Thank you very much, Dr. Solomon, particularly for waiting so long to get to testify.

Comdr. Robert Showalter, national commander of AMVETS, is our next witness. He is accompanied by Mr. Leon Sanchez, national service and legislative director.

Commander, we welcome you here before the subcommittee and express our appreciation to you for being here and waiting so long too. STATEMENT OF ROBERT W. SHOWALTER, NATIONAL COMMANDER, AMVETS; ACCOMPANIED BY RALPH E. HALL, NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; AND LEON SANCHEZ, NATIONAL SERVICE AND LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR

Mr. SHOWALTER. Thank you, Senator.

My name is Robert W. Showalter, and I am the national commander of AMVETS-American Veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

I wish to thank you for the opportunity of appearing before you to present the views of our quarter million members on one of the most serious problems facing America today-the drug addiction of many returning Vietnam veterans, and the effort to control and remedy the situation.

With me today are Ralph E. Hall, national executive director, and Leon Sanchez, national service and legislative director.

From 1776 until today, our Government has called upon the men and women of this country to establish and then protect the freedoms we all so enjoy. A grateful Nation has cared for those who have borne the battles: 1776, the Minuteman; 1861, the Yankees and the Rebels; 1898, the Rough Riders; 1917, the Doughboy; 1941 to 1950, G.I. Joe. And now, in 1971, a new cliche-one that a grateful Nation can bow its head in shame--the G.I. Junkie.

The AMVETS have recognized the existence of the drug-oriented problems of our Vietnam veterans for quite some time. Through our committee of concern, we have published and supplied over 1.600 posts with an information sheet outlining the symptoms manifested by the

various drugs. This information sheet was found to be very helpful, and many high school administrators have asked us for copies to distribute to their students.

I have read with much interest and concern the report on "The World Heroin Problem," given by the Special Study Mission composed of Congressmen Morgan F. Murphy of Illinois and Robert H. Steele of Connecticut. In the past few weeks, I have visited many State conventions of AMVETS where this problem has been discussed, and the concern of this committee with the drug abuse problem is shared by the members of my organization. We have enrolled many Vietnam members, and have a special interest in the efforts of our newest veterans to cope with their problems in returning to their rightful place in our society.

Recognizing the problem and then taking the steps to solve it requires the highest possible priority. That the problem exists cannot be disputed. It has been reported that between 10 and 15 percent of our troops in Vietnam have developed a heroin habit. The use of marihuana in Vietnam has been reported at 50 to 60 percent of the troops as having experimented with this lesser evil during their tour. And the use of drugs apparently is not confined to Vietnam, as reports indicate that the use of drugs has increased among our troops stationed in Germany.

The easy availability of heroin at a time when our troops find themselves with much time on their hands due to the winding down of the Indochina conflict is the basic and underlying reason for the problem. Upwards of 50,000 addicts of hard drugs since the first of the year in Vietnam is a problem that can only spread without efforts to control it. The Army has instituted an amnesty program under which addicts can turn themselves in for treatment without fear of punishment. However, only a small number up to now have availed themselves of this program. The Air Force, Navy, and the Marines, together with the Army, should extend this amnesty program and communicate its availability and worthiness more thoroughly and completely to addicted members of their commands.

This program should include periodic examinations, with urinalysis on a monthly basis of all servicemen as a means of detecting those with drug habits. A roster of those detected with drug symptoms could be maintained and early treatment instituted.

Indoctrination courses should be refined, updated, and presented to all members of the armed services to prevent those not already addicted from experimenting. The Defense Department only a few days ago took action to coordinate its drug abuse program by appointing an officer to supervise this activity.

Proposed legislation has been introduced calling upon the services to treat all addicted servicemen and certify them as cured prior to being discharged. Although AMVETS has not taken an official position on those proposed bills by convention mandate, they are certainly worthy of your most serious consideration as a means of solving this problem.

The Veterans' Administration has initiated a drug treatment program by opening five drug centers in January 1971. It is expected that 12 additional centers will be opened next month, and that by fiscal year 1973 there will be 30 drug treatment centers providing treat

69-311 0-72-pt. 1- -6

76

ment to 6,000 veterans at one time. We commend the Veterans' A ministration for this recognition of the problem. However, the tim schedule will have to be accelerated if the current trend of discharge veterans with drug-oriented problems continues.

In the final analysis, the problem can only be solved by going t the very source-where it begins. Previous studies have identified th countries where the opium poppy is sown, raised, harvested, and dis tributed as a national product. Agreements at the highest level o government must be made with those countries, together with thos involved in the refining and distribution of the drug to prevent its spread to this country and to our servicemen serving overseas.

We supply our troops with every weapon possible to insulate them against injury from the enemy. We cannot supply them with any weapon to protect them from the availability of drugs, which now has become their worst enemy. We must, therefore, remove the drug from their reach, and to that end this Government should use all the persuasive power available to it to implement a worldwide control of the distribution of habit-forming drugs and pursue legislation that will mandate the administration to support a broad addiction treatment program for returned servicemen, using all the facilities of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Department of Defense, and the Veterans' Administration, and include the necessary funding for a national network of community drug abuse treatment centers. Failure to do so will plunge this Nation into a drug abuse epidemic that can scarcely be imagined today.

Thank you for the opportunity of speaking to you this morning on this problem of utmost concern to us all.

Senator HUGHES. Thank you very kindly, Mr. Showalter. Did Mr. Sanchez have anything to add to that?

Mr. SANCHEZ. I just wish to reiterate that it was a very enlightening morning to listen to the veterans who spoke here this morning. It was very enlightening and we certainly support them in their support of the United States coming to grips with this problem and solving it. It is very, very important.

Senator HUGHES. Commander, you have spoken to the point, I think, very well, of the VA and commending them on what they have in the way of plans for gearing up at this point. But you also are well aware, through your organization, through the media and through the testimony here today, that there are already tens of thousands of veterans discharged who are victims of drug dependence and narcotics addiction. A very high percentage of those have less than honorable discharges.

Would you support a program that would give full treatment for drug-addicted veterans with dishonorable discharges?

Mr. SHOWALTER. Resolutions are coming in from the conventions that have been going on in this country, and one from the beautiful State of Iowa that I have just come from. We agree that these discharges should be reviewed. We say that because of the fact that if a veteran is addicted and would like to receive a cure, he should be admitted into the VA system. Absolutely. ves.

We feel that those crimes derive from drug abuse, and would have to be reviewed to the extent of allowing them to use the VA

facilities, as so spoken just before our testimony, where the good doctor so stated, that drug addiction should be screened before coming in.

We know that there is a lot of crime that is committed through drugs. We realize that if it were not for drugs, these crimes would not have been committed, so we also agree that the board they appear before would be very lenient so that these men could be admitted to the VA hospitals.

Senator HUGHES. Do you believe these veterans should receive the full range of VA care in addition to the drug addiction?

Mr. SHOWALTER. We feel that the amnesty program will take care of the future.

Senator HUGHES. I am talking about the ones already discharged. Mr. SHOWAUTER. Yes. As I say, this problem has been just brought to our attention in the last year, although the conventions convened so far, I would say, a very small majority of them at this time would allow them to receive the full benefits of the Veterans' Administration. Only the benefits that would cure the addiction is what we are referring to at the present time.

Senator HUGHES. How successful have you been in getting reviews of discharges that you have tried to handle for men? I assume you have tried to handle many of them.

Mr. SHOWALTER. We have not been very successful.

Senator HUGHES. I am not sure I haven't asked you this before in dealing with alcoholism, but has any veteran ever been discharged as an alcoholic who ever got his discharge reviewed?

Mr. SHOWALTER. Not to my knowledge, but we can go through our records in our office and answer your questions on that. I can't answer your question myself.

Senator HUGHES. So far, I have been able to find only one, or possibly two, in our history where that has happened. Most people view alcoholism as not much worse than heroin addiction. How do you view that?

Mr. SHOWALTER. I know of absolutely none. As I say, I might be wrong. We have to go back through the records. I think the country is starting to look to the future by recognizing, as we did with alcoholism, that it is a disease. We have also found that drugs are now a dreaded disease, and I think we are a compassionate people.

As in mental health many years ago, we stored the small children into attics of our homes and we were embarrassed. We have seen to it now that we recognize this type of illness that can be corrected through medical technology.

Senator HUGHES. I don't know if you were here when Chairman Cranston read those estimates, but there may be as high as 80 to 90,000 American servicemen and veterans who were victims of addiction of one sort or another. With the limited capacity of the VA, the VA has been overtaxed due to the high rate of injury and the high rate of survival of the veterans of Vietnam and those who would have died in World War II or Korea, due to rapid pickup and treatment. With the estimates what they are with military addiction and the critical situation in the VA, do you think the VA can undertake an adequate program with all these other needs?