A tale of two policies: the French connection, methadone, and heroin epidemics

Abstract

The law enforcement and treatment policies of the Nixon administration are often credited with ending the epidemic of heroin addiction that rose in America's cities in the 1960s. In this article it is argued that although the interventions did in fact cause a major change in heroin distribution and use, the epidemic did not end in any simple way. The decline in heroin and increase in methadone that resulted from the Nixon policies lead to a shift for many addicts in both clinical and street settings from one narcotic to another. The temporary shortage of heroin that resulted from law enforcement was quickly compensated for with methadone, as well as with new distribution systems from Southeast Asia and Mexico. In the end, the interventions caused a change in an enduring "heroin system," a change that left that system in a stronger form in terms of supply and in a situation of continuing growth in terms of the number of addicts.