erans under the vocational rehabilitation program of chapter 31 of title 38 of the United States Code.

I feel certain these hearings will show that it is no longer a sufficient answer to deny a governmental responsibility for the man who incurred drug addiction during service by saying he willfully subjected himself to addiction.

And is it equally unacceptable to have to twist and stretch the statutory eligibility requirements in order to bootleg outpatient care when that is appropriate or to hospitalize men not needing hospital

care.

I look forward to working with Senator Hughes, as well as Senator Hartke, chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and Senator Williams, chairman of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee, to marshal the necessary resources and enact the necessary laws to confront this problem head-on with compassion, firmness, conviction, and the sense of urgency that its enormous dimension demands.

At this point I would like to welcome another member of our committee, Senator Stevens of Alaska.

Senator STEVENS. Thank you, Senator Cranston.

On my trip to Vietnam I was very enthused over the concept of the amnesty programs, and I hope in these hearings we may get into that, and how effective it has been to the veterans.

I have no comments other than that.

Senator CRANSTON. We will now proceed with the first witness, and before us is Mr. Donald Juhl, director of Community Relations and Detoxification, The Aquarian Effort, a multiple modality, communitybased drug abuse program in Sacramento, Calif., accompanied by Mr. Larry Turner, Director of Job Training, and a panel of former addict Vietnam veterans: Mike McCaffery, Tom Hanzo, Roy Newton_and Gary Estrada, and a former addict Korean conflict veteran, John West.

I would like to suggest you proceed with your panel in whatever way you choose to do so in telling your own story in whatever order and fashion you decide.

I am particularly grateful to those of you who came from California at this time.

STATEMENT OF DONALD JUHL, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND DETOXIFICATION, THE AQUARIAN EFFORT, SACRAMENTO, CALIF., ACCOMPANIED BY LARRY TURNER, MIKE MCCAFFERY, TOM HANZO, ROY NEWTON, GARY ESTRADA, AND JOHN WEST, COMPRISING A PANEL

Mr. JUHL. We would like to begin with a statement from Mr. Larry Turner.

Mr. TURNER. It is indeed a pleasure to be here, speaking for myself, as well as all of the rest of the people here.

I would like to explain first that we did come all the way from California, because we as individuals have all had a chance to be involved in the destructive process of taking drugs.

We understand fully, at this point in our lives, that prolonged use of drugs has taken its toll on ourselves, and recognize the destructive drug

abuse trends around us, and what it is doing to the veterans coming back, as well as the people in the street. I would like to begin by telling what the Aquarian Effect has been up against in California.

At this point we set up the program about a year and a half ago to deal with a community problem of drug abuse in Sacramento.

We found that we cannot isolate ourselves in dealing with the community's problem because of the surrounding military bases.

We find that increasing numbers of people from the military are seeking help at our program, and find ourselves between a rock and a hard place in trying to deal with this situation. The existing amnesty rules, and the inability of the military to deal with the problems of these GI's while they are still on active duty, has forced them into community programs.

I have been involved with the treatment of several addicts by trying to get them back into the military after they have been AWOL.

The existing military programs that are set up around the Sacramento area, as well as the bay area, are not credible to the addicted GI. The amnesty laws they are trying to present to the GI's are so shaky, that nobody trusts them.

They just are not credible. In the past year and a half, we spoke to over 30,000 military people at bases, like Edwards Air Force Base, and several others, and we have been accepted very well by the people because we are an outside agency, and are truthful about drug abuse, about drug addiction, what it is, and how it can be treated realistically. We know it is a medical problem that should be dealt with in a medical way, more so than punitively.

We know if a high school ballplayer from Omaha, Nebr., goes to Vietnam and gets strung out because of peer group pressure, and the availability of heroin, cocaine, and any other drug you want to mention, I cannot honestly tell myself or anybody else that we should throw him in a stockade, or try to detoxify him in a great big iron box, which I have been told has happened. He should be dealt with in a medical fashion, and by people who understand what his problem is. I would like at this time to play a tape, if I could?

I was listening to the 11 o'clock news, and this is what most people's feelings are about the amnesty, and what is happening in Vietnam in terms of helping the drug addict.

I will turn this on and let you listen to it, and I would like to comment at its conclusion.

(The tape referred to follows:)

TAPE RECORDING OF NEWS PROGRAM

Mr. DONALDSON. The hospital staff would not tell us which patients had a drug problem and which were here for other reasons.

Some of the doctors did tell us what they think of the amnesty program as a solution to the heroin problem.

Dr. BAKER. Short term, my only impression is that it is not working well.

At the present time, about 75 percent of the people that we see here for drug withdrawal are amnesty failures.

10

They have been through the amnesty program and have flunked We are seeing them for the second time around or the third around, and, therefore, they are not eligible for the amnesty prog

anymore.

Mr. DONALDSON. Doctor Baker admits heroin is readily acces even in the hospital wards, that men who come here to withdraw temptation all around them.

Dr. BAKER. Patients on the ward, we stop what we can, but ward is a bad place to keep a patient if you want to try to keep away from drugs.

Mr. DONALDSON. Where do drugs come from?

Dr. BAKER. The Vietnamese themselves, the hoochmaids, the w ers on the compound, it just kind of comes in through every corne is very difficult to keep it out.

Mr. DONALDSON. This hospital's primary mission is to care for wounded, and it does that very well, but the Army doctors are in same boat as the Army layman when it comes to heroin.

Doctor Baker's view is that no one has come up with an effect way to keep men off the drug.

Sam Donaldson, ABC News at the 91st Evacuation Hospital. [End of tape.]

Mr. TURNER. That unfortunately sums up to me exactly what is h pening in Vietnam in terms of treatment.

They are not set up to deal with the problem, nor adequately p pared when the veterans come back to the States.

I have had an opportunity to talk to people at the Oakland Ar Base, also we have helped set up an Air Force drug program at F wards Air Force Base. That is being looked at.

It is the only thing I am aware of in the military that is working this point in that area.

Again, there is not enough set up by the military that allows an dividual to go in and seek treatment.

He knows it is not a real thing.

The military is lacking at this time in dealing with the drug pro lem, and I think it is time something be done, and I guess that is wh we are here today. Thank you.

Senator HUGHES. John, at this time do you have a statement?

Mr. JOHN WEST. Yes, I do, Senator Hughes. I believe that the be place to start my story would be at the beginning.

I imagine quite a few people have had similar experiences such as have had with a period of drug addiction.

I entered the service in 1948, June, fresh out of high school.

I was sent to Japan and Korea, and this is where my drug proble began.

I started off by smoking heroin. This was done with cigarettes. I did this for a period of about a year and a half. I became ad dicted to heroin in Japan and Korea, and at the outset of the Korea

war.

Senator CRANSTON. John, could you speak a little more directly int that microphone.

Mr. WEST. At the outset of the Korean war, I had the occasion to be shipped to Korea.

I found that the drug problem in Korea was much the same as the drug problem in Japan in that drugs were sold pretty much like milk is sold here in the United States.

More or less at this time I became so physically dependent on drugs, until I was almost unable to function as a soldier in the field.

Senator HUGHES. Could you tell us what kind of drugs you were taking, what drugs are you talking about?

Mr. WEST. I am talking specifically about heroin, and at that point, I would like to add the potency of heroin in Japan and Korea at that time was much more than you would find here in the United States, really, on the streets today.

I think that is why I had such a difficult time really getting rid of my drug habit, so to speak.

Senator HUGHES. Mr. West, would you give us the time element you are talking about? Is that back during the war in Korea?

Mr. WEST. Yes. Primarily during the Korean conflict. I stayed in Korea for a year, and at this time I was still addicted to drugs.

I came back to Japan, in fact, I reenlisted in Korea, in 1951, on the field.

I was shipped back to Japan in 1951. I was transferred to the zone. I was transferred from there to Belvoir, Va., this was for officer training.

I was still involved with drugs to the extent where I was coming back and forth, commuting, to the District, and I became involved with drugs, again, over and over again.

It began to have telling effects on me, on my functioning, functioning as a NCO, in 1952, in that I had the occasion to get arrested in the District for being in a drug area, primarily for being in a house where drugs were allegedly being sold.

I was arrested then, released to the military authorities, and I was brought back to Fort Belvoir, where I was questioned or interrogated by the CID.

It became known at this time that I did have a drug problem. I was released in custody of my CO at this time, and nothing was done about my drug problem.

Senator CRANSTON. What was the attitude of your officers?

Mr. WEST. I was placed on restriction for 2 weeks, and that was the extent of the punishment at this time.

Senator CRANSTON. There was only punishment, no effort to help you in any way?

Mr. WEST. No, none whatsoever, and I would like to add, there were five other NCO's involved at the time.

It was quite apparent that drugs in the service were quite popular, inasmuch as officers and NCO's were engaged in it at the time.

I decided in 1952, perhaps a change of scenery might help my problem, so I requested transfer.

It was decided that I would be transferred to Alaska, so in 1953, I went to Alaska.

I was stationed in Fort Michigan, just outside of Anchorage. I had not really gotten rid of my habit psychologically at this point. Physical dependence was taken away, yes, because I believe on my own volition I went out to seek drugs again.

69-311-72-pt. 1—2

I did become involved in drugs in Alaska, and at this time I was having a lot of trouble with my wife.

Senator HUGHES. Is this all heroin?

Mr. WEST. I have never used anything but heroin and cocaine. Senator HUGHES. Was heroin available in Alaska as it was in Korea? Mr. WEST. Much more so.

I had an NCO on the post, and he was pushing it at the time.

I don't know what his contacts were. I did not have to leave the post.

I had only to talk to him, walk five rooms down to acquire drugs, and I became, as I said before, involved in drugs again in Anchorage, and in 1955, I sought the help of the post chaplain, and he arranged transfer back to the United States.

At this time I was reassigned to Fort Belvoir again, at my displeasure, however, because of the critical nature of the MOS-there was a shortage-they needed me there, and so I was transferred back to the same post.

At this time I met my old buddies again, and they were still involved with drugs, and I fell right back into the same pattern of using drugs over and over again, until late in 1955, or early 1956, in some house or other, in Washington, D.C., and I became involved with an undercover agent, unknowingly to myself, and I purchased drugs for him, and he was supposed to be snorting or sniffing drugs at that time, and not knowing that I had charges placed against me, at this time, I was AWOL, I was apprehended in Washington.

In 1956, I was apprehended by the military authorities along with the civil authorities, the Washington police, so they arrested me at this time, and I was taken to Fort Belvoir again, where I was placed in the stockade.

It was quite apparent that I had the habit, and they placed me into a cell, and I kicked cold turkey.

At that time I was taken, I appeared before a board of officers for consideration of discharge.

Senator HUGHES. What year was this?

Mr. WEST. This was in 1956. I appeared before the board of officers, and it was decided that I would receive an undesirable discharge.

I was examined by a psychiatrist prior to this, and the outcome, you know of, but not knowing I had these charges placed against me by the civil authorities, I was released to their custody in October 1956, with the charges of supposedly sale and possession.

Senator HUGHES. Were you in a wheelchair during this hearing? Mr. WEST. I became paralyzed in 1957, sir, shortly after discharge. The origin of my paralysis had never been determined by the doctors at District of Columbia Hospital, Neurological Clinic.

I was paralyzed from the waist down about 2 years at the time. In 1958, I was represented by the American Legion to have my discharge reinstated.