Sign the Resolution for a Federal Commission on Drug Policy

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The New York Times November 25, 1953
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CITY YOUTH ADDICTS ESTIMATED AT 7,500
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Welfare Worker's Testimony to Senate Group Clashes With Anslinger's Figure of 748
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By CLAYTON KNOWLES
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Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24-- A trained welfare worker testified today that more than 7,500 youths in New York were narcotics addicts.

Mrs. Lynn Stratton Morris, representing the Committee on Use of Narcotics Among Teenagers, said that the Welfare and Health Council of New york, the committee's parent organization, believed that this figure represented "an educated if conservative guess."

Her testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating juvenile delinquency clashed with that of Harry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He testified yesterday that New York youths under 21 years old, known by police to be users, numbered only 748 for 1952. His figure for the entire country came to 3,616 for 1952.

In presenting her figure, which she agreed represented a projection, Mrs. Morris urged that narcotics addiction be made a reportable disease, and that hospitalization facilities be improved. She also called for the establishment of screening clinics and an aftercare program supported by Federal-state funds.

Return of Woodshed Urged

More homely advice for the investigating group was given by John Gutknecht, State's Attorney of Cook county, Illinois, which embraces Chicago. He urged "more frequent visitations to the woodshed" as a prime curb on juvenile delinquency.

"When the woodshed comes back to its own," he said, "we can forget the jail."

The Right Rev. Msgr. John O'Grady, secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Charities, testified that the rehabilitation of the whole neighborhood and community was essential to the correction of the growing national problem to which the committee was addressing itself.

He said that he realized this called for "a complete reorientation of the social programs of American communities."

The widespread use of "bennies," or stimulant drugs of which emphetamine [sic] sulphate is most common, at "goofball" parties was described by Representative Robert H. Cunningham of the Oklahoma Legislature. He directed an investigation of juvenile drug use in Oklahoma City.

Mr. Cunningham told of leading raids on teen­age drug and sex parties and reported that, unlike other testimony, the youths were "not from the wrong side of the track."

Control Bill Held Killed

He said that a strong controls bill passed the Oklahoma House, but that when it got before the Senate, "the big drug interests from the East and New York set up headquarters in the hotels." He added that "whisky flowed, fast talk flowed and the bill was killed."

Edward J. Mowery, Pulitzer Prize­winning Scripps­Howard reporter, also took issue with figures used by Commissioner Anslinger. He remarked that Mr. Anslinger was "pooh­poohing a very vital problem."

Senator Estes Kefauver, Democrat of Tennessee, said that he believed the Narcotic Bureau should have "more agents, a central school, something like the Federal Bureau of Investigation has for training agents, and more dynamic leadership from Washington for the states."

This testimony came as the subcommittee completed the first series of hearings in which it sought to relate narcotics addiction to the juvenile delinquency problem.

Senator Robert C. Hendrickson, Republican of New Jersey and subcommittee chairman, said that the nest set of hearings, opening Dec. 10 here, would deal with delinquency in the District of Columbia.

Senator Hendrickson said that other hearings would be held in New York and Boston, though dates had not been set. Field hearings will be expanded, he added, if more money is made available to the committee.

Mr. Gutknecht told the subcommittee that if the group went to Chicago, it "could not help but be of service to us." Mr. Cunningham also invited hearings in Oklahoma city.

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