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58
Constable, with the support of a Medical Officer of Health's working
party, found within a few months 50 young persons (some between
the ages of 12 and 13 years) who were takers of amphetamine or
L.S.D. This increasing use of L.S.D. is causing even greater concern
to members of the W.H.O's Regional Committee for Europe who
were presented with evidence indicating chromosome damage
resulting from the use of this hallucinogen.
Broadly it would seem that there are two types of young 'soft'
drug takers—those coming into town for the weekend who are
prepared to indulge in a little 'experimenting' and the 'hard core' of
shallow, homeless drifters rejected by family and society who seek
escape from their misery and hopelessness. It is in the latter group
that those who progress to the 'hard' drugs of heroin and cocaine
are most likely to be found.
Personality disorders considered predisposing to drug taking
such as emotional instability, immaturity, impulsiveness, etc., are
common among addicts but they are not unknown among nonaddicts.
Moreover, it is evident that some addicts have previously
been normal, stable and well-adjusted individuals, a fact which
shows quite clearly the unmistakable harm which addiction has
upon inter-personal and social relationships. Perhaps an addict can
be described as a person with certain personality traits who has
chosen drug taking as a solution to his problems, the reasons for
which he is unaware but which often include his association and
movement within a social group which eulogises the practice of drug
taking. In other words, it would appear that the extreme case with a
defective personality is probably already set on a course of selfdestruction
and the drug addiction has been found to be a convenient
mode of transport.
A London Consulting Psychiatrist has summarised the social,
psychological and environmental circumstances of drug dependence
in the following terms:—
1. Drug dependence is the result of the interplay of two factors,
viz., the kind of drug and a susceptible personality.
2. Drugs are taken by different people for different reasons—
it is misleading to assume that all people classified as 'addicts'
are similar.
3. The more a drug is socially acceptable the more normal the
group who take it. The more foreign to society is a drug, the
more deviant personalities will be found who take it.
4. Drug users range from normal personalities to those who
already have such a defective personality that drug taking is
only one symptom among many and that their social malfunctioning
has been the cause rather than the result of taking
drugs.