The Narcotic Farm

[Henry]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=narcotics-recovery-farm 

 


Reaping a Sad Harvest: A "Narcotic Farm" That Tried to Grow Recovery [Slide
Show]


A federal prison in Kentucky was a temporary home for thousands, including
Sonny Rollins, Peter Lorre and William S. Burroughs as well as a lab for
addiction treatments such as LSD


By Charles Q. Choi 

>From 1935 to 1975, just about everyone busted for drugs in the U.S. was sent
to the United States Narcotic Farm outside Lexington, Ky. Equal parts
federal prison
<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=prison-plague-post-soviet-russia> ,
treatment center, research laboratory and farm, this controversial
institution was designed not only to rehabilitate addicts, but to discover a
cure
<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hacking-memory-to-break-drug-addiction>
for drug addiction.

Now a new documentary, The Narcotic Farm
<http://www.itvs.org/shows/ataglance.php?showID=7654> , reveals the lost
world of this institution, based on rare film footage, numerous documents,
dozens of interviews of former staff, inmates and volunteer patients, and
more than 2,000 photographs unearthed from archives across the country.
Premiering October 26 on public television in Philadelphia and Salisbury,
Md., the film will appear
<http://www.itvs.org/shows/broadcast.php?showID=7654>  on public television
stations across the country throughout November. A book
<http://www.amazon.com/Narcotic-Farm-Americas-Prison-Addicts/dp/0810972867>
accompanying the documentary includes rare and previously unpublished
pictures of "Narco," as the institution was called locally, a selection of
which can be seen in this slide show.

View Slide <http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?id=narcotics-recovery-farm>
Show of the Narcotics Farm

According to the book, the institution became a premier center for research
into <http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=psychedelic-healing>  drug
addiction and treatment, advancing everything from the use of methadone to
treat heroin withdrawal to drugs that blocked the action of opiates. Along
the way, Narco was frequented by legendary jazz musicians such as Chet Baker
and Sonny Rollins, as well as actor Peter Lorre and beat generation writer
William S. Burroughs, who recounted his experience in his first novel,
Junkie.

The documentary also chronicles how the Farm was shut down when Congress
discovered that researchers there were using patients as human guinea pigs
in CIA-funded experiments into LSD
<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=inventor-of-lsd-embarks-on-final-trip>
. Drug research on federal prisoners is now illegal.

Still, the filmmakers note accomplishments at the institution remain
milestones in addiction science and treatment. Its most important
contribution might be how it transformed the way society views addicts-"as
people suffering from a chronic, relapsing disorder that affects public
health," says book co-author Nancy Campbell, an associate professor at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., who studies the history of
drug addiction research.

 

Henry Mu

 

Hey, have a look at my O'blog,
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/henrymu and support and
contribute to the campaign (it's not over until the polls close):
http://tinyurl.com/henrym4obamafundraising 

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