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laboratory test that could detect heroin in the urine. This made it
possible to screen large numbers of people. Jaffe urged that those
ready for transfer home be required to provide urine specimens, and
that those found to be using heroin be immediately placed in
methadone treatment.

The plan was implemented and Dr. Jaffe was brought into the Nixon
White House as the first in a long line of so called "Drug Czars".
Nixon then announced that there would be a high priority given to
stamping out drug abuse. The "War on Drugs" had been declared.

There were those in the criminal/justice sector that were aghast that
the administration would embark on a program that seemed so
antithetical to the expected "hard line on criminals" posture more
characteristic of Nixon. They were mollified by being assured that the
program would be carefully regulated and that they would play a large
role in preventing it from getting out of control. In fact, methadone
has been the most regulated drug in the formulary. Until very
recently, there were several overlapping federal agencies regulating,
licensing and inspecting methadone programs, in addition to state
regulations. The regulations were very restrictive, including limiting
doses in some cases. Recent improvements reflect the more
appropriate attitude that these critical decisions should be made by
physicians working on site, not by bureaucrats and politicians.

What Is Methadone?

In an earlier section, the ways in which different foods and other
substances have been incorporated into primitive cultures have been
described. This is an example of utilizing the native substance
without any attempt to change it. Later, the chemical process of
isolating the active ingredient, morphine, from the poppy juice was
described. This would be termed a chemical extraction.

Still later, the processes by which codeine and heroin were obtained by
chemically altering morphine were mentioned. These altered
compounds would be called semi-synthetic. Methadone illustrates
another process and a different final product, which is termed