European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 3, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse La my in to cd g want it bad enough Ramsuer said. The crack epidemic is not confined to new York streets. Police say 90 percent of the cocaine sold in Detroit is crack As is 66 percent o the Coke sold in Dallas and More than one third in san Francisco. Law enforcement authorities however believe the biggest concentrations of crack Are in los Angeles Miami and new York. Crack Cam Are choking Iho courts in Manhattan Only one of every 200 crack misdemeanours reach trial because drug Sellers routinely ask Lor jury trials. The new York police department reports thai More than halt of All cocaine arrests now involve crack. Police believe that crack is partly responsible for an 1b percent Rise in felonies in the first Quarter of 1986. 01169 murders within a 22-Square-mile area on the upper West Side in the first Hall o the year. 106 were drug related. A electives say they have been Able 10 lie so of the killings directly to crack authorities do not yet have figures on crack related deals. Bul reports from medical examiners in 25 metropolitan areas show that cocaine related deals mostly irom heart problems have More than tripled in the list five years from 185 in 1981 to 584 in 1984. Drug treatment centers Are overflowing and Many have been forced 1o place addicts on Long waiting lists. According to or Arnold Washton. Director of the drug rehabilitation program in Regent Hospital in new York there has bean a 600 percent Rise in admissions to Public funded drug abuse clinics in the last two years people Are scared said Washlon. I Haven l seen this much Lear in a Long or. Mark Gold founded the National cocaine a Olinc in May 1983 As a referral service for treatment. He says cocaine and crack in Pami Cular has become the favored drug of Middle class America airline pilots who use crack and tear addiction have called the hotline in recent months Gold said. So have highly skilled factory workers stockbrokers engineers and computer experts. Over the past three years More than 1 25 million Calls have hooded the lines in the 12-Foo windowless room at fair Oaks Hospital in Summit . The toll tree hotline 800-cocaine has been averaging about 1,500 Calls a Day. Washton the Hollins s research director said studies show that As recently As nine months ago none of Tho Calls oven mentioned crack. Today. 33 be cell of All callers say they May be addicted 1o crack. Less than a year ago there were no crack addicts at the Jamaa drug treatment cell or in los Angeles. Now they make up 80 percent of the Center s clients. We Vegol people coming in now who have been around the rehabilitation Block before says Tennant the nil drug abuse advisor they be been to their minister they be been to the Hospital they be gone to their self help groups. Nothing works. They still can t Slop doing this crack that s Why we need another medication to Stop the incredible depression thai psychological problems linked to cocaine abuse a photo sen. At tons o amt to in disguise toying visit of crack in Manhattan to illustrate Lnig s availability. This notion has generated enormous conflict within the drug abuse treatment Field. Traditionally drug addiction has been viewed As a psychosocial disease that can Only be curbed through discipline and abstinence both of which need to be reinforced by group therapy. However there is growing evidence thai cocaine and crack produce heir euphoric effects by manipulating Tho chemistry of the brain and the search is on or a pharmacological agent that will Block or reverse that manipulation. In the last 18 months a relatively Small number of psychiatrists nationwide chemo psychical risks As they be been termed in some medical circles have administered a series of Anli depressants such As Imi praline and Desi praline to relieve the vicious craving that drives users Back 10 crack. Only a few Hundred crack addicts in the United Stales have taken those drugs. Researchers say i is still too Early to know whether the unusual drug therapy ranging in Cost from $200 to $1,000 for the two to three weeks of treatment is anymore than a Quick fix. Nonetheless the use of anti depress la. Which Are not thought to be habit forming is based on the theory that the repeated use of crack depletes the brain s Supply of dopamine a neurotransmitter that controls emotions. Or. William freed studies euro pharmacology Al the National Insl Lule of mental health in Bethesda my. He says crack like cocaine acts somewhat like amphetamines to stimulate the brain system that contains the substance this system is concentrated in the medial forebrain bundle or the Reward Center of 1he brain. In Sho Short term says freed crack stimulates those cells hat produce As repeated doses of crack stimulate those cells Over and Over the cells become exhausted and Stop functioning. When this happens the brain s regular Supply of dopamine quickly becomes depleted Many researchers believe that the crack induced depletion of dopamine causes the crash that occurs when the drug s High wears Olf prompting agonizing depression As Well As extreme anxiousness sleeplessness and paranoia or. Charles Dackis medical director of Hampton Hospital in Rancocas n said crack triggers a vicious Cycle within the brain. When dopamine is depleted the craving Lor Coke gets stronger and then you need More Coke to restore the dopamine but actually the user is killing off the brain s Overall Supply of Dackis said. An addict under treatment at Columbia University s drug rehabilitation Center described it this Way after a while your main craving is to avoid the awful depression. It s not the High so much As it is the Low you want to get rid of of. That s what you re hooked Dackis said Brimo Cristine a drug normally Given to patients with Parkinson s disease to ease their tremors has proven effective in eliminating the craving for crack by stimulating the neurotransmitter a. Brimo Cristine works within a Lew hours says Dackis while the anti depressants May take As Long As several weeks to be successful. So far he has treated about 50 patients and says the majority of them have reported reduced cravings. However the Anil depressant treatment has Ita drawbacks. According to Dackis patients suffering from hallucinations and other crack induced psychoses May experience manic episodes after taking Brimo Cristine. Other physicians have reported hat Whan patients relapse and Lake crack along1 with anti depressants the therapeutic drugs Only serve to enhance the cocaine High. For the Post two years two new York cily psychiatrists Ivan Goldberg and Harold Esecover. Have treated crack addicts with Protr Ityline the most energizing Anil depressant. There s a lot of things we just Don t know yet Goldberg said. Bul we re getting a entirely new set of patients now. Their craving is just enormous. We be got to do that opinion is echoed by or. Irl Exleine medical director Al fair Oaks Hospital in Del Ray Beach. Fla. Extein. Who has prescribed anti depressants for 25 crack addicts in the last several months sees the treatment As a Bridge that will get a aliens Lotha Point where More conventional psychotherapies can have some effect. It s working Well in allowing people to gel through the detoxification phase Extein said. And having 1his available May get some people to come for help because they know How hard ii is to Slop and Ihry May see these drugs As an easier but the psychiatric establishment argues there is no easier Way and insists that Long painful hours of drug rehabilitation Are the Best Long term cure. We see no evidence that these drugs can eliminate the said Washton. Ii May even be counter therapeutic. I Don t think you can have a pharmacological cure without the patients also changing their substituting one drug for another is a Short run solution said Langdon communications director at Phoenix House. Look Hal happened Ullh methadone he said. We be still got 35,000 people Here in new York hooked on it since they snarled with that drug 20 years Phoenix House like a majority of drug treat Mon centers is rigid in its philosophy that the Bosl Way to break a Debili Laling drug habit is to change the addict s Liles Lyle in a drug free environment the process is Long and arduous and draught with High relapse Rales an slim aloud 75 percent of cocaine addicts seeking treatment for tha first Lime fail to get off drugs. I think what you have is the act that the Coke has killed off these chemicals neurotransmitters that Are responsible for Energy and feeling Good said or. Robert Millman head of Tho substance abuse program Al new York Hospital at Cornell University. And so when it s taken away the anxiety and the depression come Back and they reach a stale of no i being Able to get pleasure from one addict undergoing outpatient treatment at the Scripps clinic said he considered suicide after 10 Days of abstinence from crack. I remember said the 29-year-old accountant that i would never again be Able to get up and just enjoy the morning just the simple things like having a cup of Coffee and Reading the paper. So Why not just get it Over Wilh the accountant stuck it out and eventually kicked the crack Habil. According to or. Edward mohns. Who runs the Scripps outpatient program when patients stay Wilh the program Lor the initial eight weeks there la a 70 percent to 80 percent Cura rate within a year Hie agony of withdrawal is the major impetus behind the Anil depressant therapy. Advocates of the pharmaceutical approach emphasize that lha drugs work Best in combination with conventional psychotherapy but patients who use medications often find themselves ostracized by the , i be had a lot of patients Teri me thai they practically get kicked Oul if they Tell those groups that they re taking alternative Goldberg said. Tha a. Approach is Good bul in does t work for everybody Kenny the founder of cocaine Anonymous. Sail Jne. Anti depressants Are a no no with Many three april who Are unbending in their belief thai in Fronley Waytt kick the drug habit is to kick All drugs. It s pressure that the addicts Are just loin to a to Pul up Wilh Kinny said. Tothe crucial step in unhooking the hooked Ivahn Shakt j is to get the person to realize thai tie is addicted and to get them to commit one Day at a time to abstinence. Then we get them to learn about the drug s Power and to show them ways to live life positively without using it mohns said. You cannot be a full Lime crack head or a very Long Lime and live. You either go cry or die the stars and stripes Page is
