The Narcotic Farm

[Opiyum]

http://www.heraldleaderphoto.com/2008/09/27/united-states-narcotics-farm/
^^^Here's a link to some interesting photos taken back when The Narcotic Farm in Lexington KY was still in use. If you aren't familiar with The Narcotic farm it was the first place and first time in american history where addicts were able to get treatment for their addictions be it voluntary or involuntary. Many of america's greatest Jazz musician's in the 30's went there and for awhile they called Lexington the Jazz capital of the world.
There is a new book that has been published called "The Narcotic Farm: The rise and fall of America's first prison for drug addicts". Here is a link if you want to order a copy.
http://www.amazon.com/Narcotic-Farm-Americas-Prison-Addicts/dp/0810972867
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MrpxeFmPL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

This could be considered the beggining of of what is now our system by which the courts send people against there will to a religious institution for treatment that has no oversight and keeps no records and never publishes it's success rates. Fortunately things like S.O.S. and other secular treatment programs are starting to gain steam. I just ordered myself a copy of the book and will post my thoughts on it once I get the chance to read it.


One little interesting tidbit...There were a lot of experimental treatments taking place at this facility and the "inmates" could volunteer for these treatments and in return for their service they would be allowed to bank milligrams of their DOC. So upon their release or while still incarcerated they would then be able to get that drug of choice in whatvever dose they wanted for birthdays or holidays or for whatever. This wasn't a common practice but it was definately something they did there. They also did a lot of tests with Methadone and realized it had great potential for abuse and tried to keep it from getting produced for the public.

[Hiram]

http://www.heraldleaderphoto.com/2008/09/27/united-states-narcotics-farm/
^^^Here's a link to some interesting photos taken back when The Narcotic Farm in Lexington KY was still in use. If you aren't familiar with The Narcotic farm it was the first place and first time in american history where addicts were able to go to get treatment for their addictions be it voluntary or involuntary. Many of america's greatest Jazz musician in the 30's went there and for awhile they called lexington the Jazz capital of the world.
There is a new book that has been published called The Narcotic Farm: The rise and fall of America's first prison for drug addicts. Here is a link if you want to order a copy.
http://www.amazon.com/Narcotic-Farm-Americas-Prison-Addicts/dp/0810972867
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MrpxeFmPL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

This could be considered the beggining of of what is now our system by which the courts send people against there will to a religious institution for treatment that has no oversight and keeps no records and never publishes it's success rates. Fortunately things like S.O.S. and other secular treatment programs are starting to gain steam. I just ordered myself a copy of the book and will post my thoughts on it once I get the chance to read it.

Nice find Opi-None. Copy ordered.

[Narkotikon]

Very interesting. Wasn't Lexington where methadone detox / maintenance was started? I thought I read that somwhere. I used to live in Lexington for a few years after college, but I didn't know about this "Farm." At first I got all excited, because I thought it was going to be about some farm growing opium poppies that I could magically sneek out underneath my coat. Oh well. Thanks for the info anyway.

[Opiyum]

Here's an article going into a bit more detail for those who may want to know more before ordering a copy.
http://www.kentucky.com/692/story/538870.html

[Princess]

Kick ass find! I love this kind of stuff!
Thanks Opiyum!!

[nick]

I'd save your money and tape the documentry movie which is going to be on American TV in a month or two.

[Opiyum]

Im sure Ill watch that but I always prefer to read and own a book when it comes to material as interesting as something like this.

[Narkotikon]

Yeah, I'm probably going to watch the PBS episode. That second link Opiyum provided (the more in-depth link) said that there's going to be a documentary about in on PBS soon.

That place is still there I think. If you go out Leestown Road, you pass this big old prison on the left. I'm assuming that's where it used to be. I wonder if this was strictly a detox / abstinance kind of rehab, or if they also believed in maintenance. I'm pretty sure that methadone maintenance / detox started in Lexington after the researchers were looking for an opiate that would be suitable to detox the patients. I believe the patients were either given heroin or morphine or both to study the effects, and then they used methadone to detox them because it was cheap, had a good safety profile, and they said it wasn't sedating. I don't agree with the sedating thing, but I guess it's good that maintenance was developed from that, although I wish they would have been more open to the use of other opiates (i.e., morphine, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, oxycodone, etc.) for maintenance as well.

Good find, Opiyum

[clinton]

sounds like great read,ill check it out

[Opiyum]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96437766
Found an interview with the authors of the book at npr.org.


Yeah, I'm probably going to watch the PBS episode. That second link Opiyum provided (the more in-depth link) said that there's going to be a documentary about in on PBS soon.

That place is still there I think. If you go out Leestown Road, you pass this big old prison on the left. I'm assuming that's where it used to be. I wonder if this was strictly a detox / abstinance kind of rehab, or if they also believed in maintenance. I'm pretty sure that methadone maintenance / detox started in Lexington after the researchers were looking for an opiate that would be suitable to detox the patients. I believe the patients were either given heroin or morphine or both to study the effects, and then they used methadone to detox them because it was cheap, had a good safety profile, and they said it wasn't sedating. I don't agree with the sedating thing, but I guess it's good that maintenance was developed from that, although I wish they would have been more open to the use of other opiates (i.e., morphine, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, oxycodone, etc.) for maintenance as well.

Good find, Opiyum



There is a mention about what you are talking about with methadone but apparently the researchers who discovered it were against it but that doesn't mean methadone wasn't first implimented in Lexington. One thing they did do was re-addict people who had recently gotten clean and then withdrawal them to see what medications worked.
Methadone was well liked as you can imagine.
Listen for yourself and see what you get from it.

[nick]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96437766
Found an interview with the authors of the book at npr.org.





There is a mention about what you are talking about with methadone but apparently the researchers who discovered it were against it but that doesn't mean methadone wasn't first implimented in Lexington. One thing they did do was re-addict people who had recently gotten clean and then withdrawal them to see what medications worked.
Methadone was well liked as you can imagine.
Listen for yourself and see what you get from it.

The re-addicting and other experiments were,I believe,I only carried out on prisoners for sentence reductions,not on volunteer patients.It's worth noting that one of the experiments was on tolerance and the amount that could be taken before od.In other words they'd give you a massive hit.

The experiments are deeply disturbing.I swear they'd dissect junkies given half a chance.

[rockbottom]

didn't they test LSD and shit on the prisoners--then reward them with herion? i saw that somewhere not sure if its the narcotic farm though

[Narkotikon]

I know that they gave psych / mental patients LSD at Eastern State Hospital in Lexington. Not sure when it happened (probably in the 60's / 70's). Eastern State today is this old delapidated building near downtown Lex and it's a really really crummy psych hospital. It looks like one of those old insane assylums. It's like a campus, with several buildings in a complex, and it's surrounded by huge fences. It's out Newtown Pike. Not a fun place to go.

I'm sure they probably did that at this Narc Farm too.

[nick]

didn't they test LSD and shit on the prisoners--then reward them with herion? i saw that somewhere not sure if its the narcotic farm though

Very likely.Hell,they tested LSD on anyone that couldn't complain,including many British servicemen,who weren't even told that they were being given huge doses of acid.

[dieselbaby]

Oh boy...I totally have this book! It sucks! The topic is cool but there is absolutely NO information whatsoever in this book. Just a bunch of uninteresting black-and-white pictures with a random paragraph or two of text thrown in every couple of pages. It has been downgraded from coffee table book status in my house and is now sitting around collecting dust. Anyone here want it? For real.

I got way more entertainment and information from reading Junky about Burroughs' experiences at the farm. Interesting place for sure, but this is really just a picture book and nothing more. Total waste of money. Makes me glad it was a "free sample" - thanks Barnes and Noble and your lack of security cameras!

[ItsLupus]

I checked it out from the library and agree Diesel...its great if you like to look at pictures but thats about it.and the photos werent even really entertaining..it showed them cooking,tending cows and shit like that.I had a tough time even finishing it...and that was looking at the photos and caption reading.Its definately not a junkie book club nominee.Glad you got yours via the five finger discount..it would have really sucked to have shelled out the cash for it.

IL

[StinkyPickle]

I'd save your money and tape the documentry movie which is going to be on American TV in a month or two.

Unless it's a show about a single guy and his mother looking for a bride, or a woman trying to serve shots of tequila out of her vagina, it isn't American television.

[ItsLupus]

Unless it's a show about a single guy and his mother looking for a bride, or a woman trying to serve shots of tequila out of her vagina, it isn't American television.


I hope they dont serve the worm too :D...or better yet the worm go "missing" before the shot gets served

[Duckfeet]

Burroughs' book, and later Huncke's book both talked about the place...I go thru Lexington trucking, all the time, and always get a bit of knot in my throat, about old days...before my time...actually seemed easier back then, in hindsight, to be a junky...but it's never easy...if u have all u want: that sucks, (e.g. Burroughs in Tangier)...and if you *haven't* got all you want (me): that sucks even worse..but as others have pointed out, Lexington was kind of the beginning of seeing heroin addicts as "sick, needing to get well" rather than just criminals needing jail...

But calling us sick, and forcing into treatment, didn't work back then, and it doesn't work now...the trouble now, is, we've also got computer database records of every time we stumble, so we're fucked coming and going... yeah, they'll call us 'sick' but they won't give us the real medicine we need....and when we don't behave, lying beneath 'sickness' is just more criminal incarceration...same as Lexington...

[Indy]

Yeah, when a politician takes steps to make drug addiction a "disease", it's a win-win situation for everybody except the people it's supposed to treat:

1. It makes them look "progressive" and compassionate by APPEARING to "go easy" on drug addicts.

But also....
2. The guise of medical treatment is a good way to do things you can't get away with otherwise. You can't deprive a person of life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness....unless it's for "medical reasons". You can't hold a guy without trial unless it's for "medical reasons" (danger to self/others, they usually say self).

Ever need to lock somebody up for a day? Call 911 and say they're saying they're saying they're gonna kill themselves. None of that "search and seizure bullshit" applies if it's "for your own good". And in a WAY those laws make sense, but it's also easy to abuse, since they lock you up FIRST, and THEN find out what the fuck is going on. A very, VERY mean trick to play on a junkie, ESPECIALLY if the cops and paramedics come while they're nodding out.

[Duckfeet]

Three other things:

1) As computers get more and more wired together, if you've *ever* been to treatment, docs will know it, and can justify not giving you shit for pain: ever since I asked V.A. for help, this has been the case.

2) Looming behind 'treatment' is jail anyway: sure, yer first bust, you get 'treatment', or some sort of 'drug court'...but usually you then have 'prison suspended', or will eventually. This way, you get out of jail quicker, the *first* time, but then cops don't have to *prove* an case against you, and the next time you get cracked, you go straight to jail on a violation, and often get original charge reinstated...this is what took my girl away from me in Louisiana, years ago...Poor thing has pretty much done 'life' by now, on some drug bust ages ago.

3) By calling something "treatment' and drug use 'a disease'...everybody gets to sidestep our dwindling constitutional protections...

It's a racket...Doctors, us, judges: everybody got sold down the river...it's the 'big con', and even we buy into it, until it's way too late...


Yeah, when a politician takes steps to make drug addiction a "disease", it's a win-win situation for everybody except the people it's supposed to treat:

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