Long-term study on heroin addicts released
A 33-year study of heroin addicts by UCLA researchers details
the severe personal and social consequences of dependence on the
drug, and the heavy odds against permanent abstinence from heroin
by long-term addicts.
With lifelong abstinence difficult to achieve, the researchers
urge a greater emphasis on incremental treatment goals for heroin
addicts.
“For many heroin addicts, dependence on the drug has
become a lifelong condition associated with severe health and
social consequences,” said Yih-Ing Hser, adjunct professor at
UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute and the study’s
principal investigator. “These findings suggest that drug
abuse treatment programs should focus more on incremental
improvements in the lives of heroin addicts, a more realistic goal
than lifelong abstinence.”
The study, published in the May edition of the peer-reviewed
Archives of General Psychiatry, is the third follow-up of a group
of 581 male heroin addicts committed by the courts to the
California Civil Addict Program between 1962 and 1964 at an average
age of 25.4 years. At the time of the most recent follow-up, in
1996″“97, 284 of the original group were dead, and 242 were
interviewed. The mean age at interview was 57.4 years.
Californians wait for gas prices to fall
Some of the highest gas prices in the nation aren’t
providing fuel for consumer protests in California, at least not
yet.
With a gallon of regular unleaded averaging a record $2 a
gallon, consumer groups might expect to be deluged with complaints,
as they were in previous years when prices rose sharply. So far
that hasn’t been the case.
“The public is not outraged about this at the present
time,” said Harry Snyder, a senior advocate for the West
Coast office of Consumers Union in San Francisco. “I think
people have just gotten used to the fact that greed is going to
dominate the marketplace.”
California’s car-centered culture plays a role, too.
“Basically, you can’t lead a boycott. People need to
drive their cars to work,” he said.
Only about 15 people joined a protest Wednesday outside a gas
station in South-Central Los Angeles where a grass-roots group
called on President Bush and Gov. Gray Davis to temporarily suspend
state and federal gasoline taxes.
“That is breaking my pocket everyday. I can’t even
afford to give my kids money like I used to,” said Arlena
Atkins, a mother of six who works as a security guard. “I
don’t have no other choice but to go and pay for the
gas.”
“Why tax senior citizens? Why tax the poor?” asked
Lowe Barry, co-chairman of Citizens Against Higher Prices.
CA senate approves bill on signature
gatherers
Initiative, referendum and recall petitions would have to
disclose if the signature gatherer was a volunteer or a paid worker
under a bill approved Thursday by the state Senate.
Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena, said his bill would let voters know
if a petition was being circulated by a “bounty hunter”
or a group of volunteers.
“I think this is something that is in the interest of
informing the public,” Scott said.
But critics say it’s not clear if voters would be more
willing to sign a petition if they knew it was circulated by
volunteers. Current law requires that any state or local initiative
petition contain a notice that voters have a right to ask if the
signature gatherer is a volunteer or paid worker.
A 26-9 vote sent the bill to the Assembly.
Two similar bills were vetoed in recent years.
Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports.