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While the intent of this legislation was laudable and the wording
benign, it was ultimately interpreted as banning physicians from
treating addicts under penalty of losing their licenses to practice
medicine. This led to the withdrawal of the medical profession from
dealing with addiction and, by default, leaving it to the criminal justice
sector.

During the l930s, the U.S. Public Health Service opened three
hospitals for addicted persons. These were primarily intended to serve
as centers for treating addicted persons who had been incarcerated in
federal prisons. However, some important experimental work was
done which elucidated the predictable sequence and severity of
withdrawal from opiates such as morphine and heroin. Attempts to
prevent or alleviate such symptoms were less successful. Studies in the
late '30s indicated that attempts at behavioral modification or
psychotherapy were ineffective in having lasting benefit for addicted
persons. The relapse rates were greater than ninety percent.

During World War II, Germany was cut off from its supply of opium,
and therefore had inadequate supplies of morphine to treat battlefield
injuries. German chemists were set to work to find a substitute for
morphine and came up with a compound that was quite effective at
relieving pain. That compound was methadone.

After the war, large amounts of opium began to be shipped from
Turkey to Marseilles, where it was converted into heroin and
smuggled into the U.S., mostly into New York. This was the now
legendary "French Connection" which led to an alarming increase in
heroin addiction, drug-related crime, fatal overdoses and other medical
consequences.

An eminent endocrinologist with a brilliant record in research, but
with no experience in addiction medicine, was asked to bring his
scientific acumen to bear on the crisis. Vincent Dole accepted the
challenge. Realizing how little he knew about the dynamics of
addiction, he first studied volunteers who were heroin addicts. He
brought them into the clinical research ward at the Rockefeller
Institute and gave them heroin, as much as they wanted. He observed