Help for Drug Addicts

A man who recognizes no half measures in dealing with heroin addiction is James A. O'Shea '42 of Lawrence, Mass.

"The heroin addict must seek self-help, a methadone maintenance program, or he should stay in jail because if he stays on the street he will contaminate more of our children," says Dr. O'Shea, chief of pediatrics at Bon Secours Hospital in Methuen and senior pediatrician at Lawrence General Hospital.

Dr. O'Shea has galvanized community leadership in the area to organize help for young people hooked on drugs. The Greater Lawrence Community Drug Council, formed under his guidance, represents industry, schools, city government, the police, physicians, and other civic leaders.

"Drug abuse is not just a medical, education, law enforcement, or parental problem, but it is everybody's problem, demanding total community involvement." Dr. O'Shea was quoted as saying in a recent interview in a Boston paper.

The council provides five key services for young addicts: an educational program, an emergency hotline, an ambulatory rehabilitation facility, a medical walk-in clinic, and support of Challenge House, a residential rehabilitation center in Methuen. With two former addicts as directors, Challenge House has an 18-month-long, supervised self-help program. It has a cure record of 95% among addicts who stay for the entire year and a half. About 50% have dropped out before completing the program.

A Laconia, N. H., native with an M.D. from Long Island College, Dr. O'Shea casts much of the blame for drug abuse on the affluent society's bestowal of "too much, too soon" on its young. He blames complacency for its spread.

"Fifty percent of our kids are using some kind of drugs at some time, and heroin is now in our high schools and junior high schools," Dr. O'Shea stresses. "There's too much complacency and not too much is being done about the problem—it's getting worse." He sees complacency on the governmental level as well as the public. "We're just not doing a good job because of a lack of funds."

The Lawrence pediatrician is the author of a Massachusetts law which permits doctors under certain conditions to treat youngsters with drug problems without their parents' consent.