YOUTH: High & Light

A Chicago father, home early one afternoon last autumn, opened the door of his son's bedroom and found himself staring at a terrifying tableau. His son, a 15-year-old vocational-school student, was sitting there, one forearm bared, a hypodermic syringe in his hand. Another boy was holding a teaspoon over the flame of a cigarette lighter. Both the syringe and the teaspoon contained heroin.

Weeping, the boy confessed that he had used drugs for a year—first marijuana on a dare from a schoolmate, then the virulent morphine derivative, heroin. The drug made him feel "high and light," and after he met a peddler named "Greasy George," he started using it regularly. To get a "fix" of heroin he had only to ask George: "Do you need a boy?" or "Have you got a thing?" For a dollar, the peddler would produce one of the capsules of white powder he kept hidden just inside the zipper of his pants. Once supplied, the boy and his friends would repair to basements or bedrooms, furtively dissolve the powder with water in a spoon and give each other shots.

Snort of Horse. The case was not unique. During the past year, authorities have become aware of a tremendous and frightening spread of narcotic addiction among teenagers. In one New York court alone, during 1949, there were 41 narcotics arrests of youths between 16 and 18; in 1950 the figure jumped to 161. And there is no telling how many others are using narcotics. One Manhattan welfare worker guessed: "Thousands."

The new addicts learn and change hophead jargon. They call a needle and a syringe a "spike & dripper." A sniff of heroin is a "snort of horse," and an injection under the skin a "joy pop." Many teen-agers quickly become "mainliners" —because it is cheaper and quicker if they inject the drug directly into a vein, most often with a safety pin and an eyedropper.

Once "hooked," the youngsters behave frighteningly like older addicts. To get money for heroin, they steal at home, sell the drug on commission in school hallways and lavatories. Some boys become thieves and holdup artists; many a teen-age girl has turned to prostitution.

Dim Hope. There is one dimly hopeful side to the teen-age dope problem. Unlike older people, few teen-agers appear to take to drugs because of psychological troubles; youngsters usually start using narcotics either out of ignorance or the same reckless impulses which lead them to race hot rods. Though they are easier to wean, however, there are almost no facilities for taking care of them. On New York's Rikers Island, youngsters have to endure the horrors of a sudden "cold turkey" cure or get none at all. Once released, many go right back to drugs again. And penalties for the vicious crime of dope-peddling are too lenient (maximum: ten years) to deter many from the hugely profitable trade.