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1 Contemp. Drug Probs. 263 (1971-1972)
Rehabilitation of Heroin Users in Vietnam

handle is hein.journals/condp1 and id is 283 raw text is: Rehabilitation of heroin
users in Vietnam
BY NORMAN E. ZINBERG, M.D.
Dr. Zinberg is Professor of Education at Clark
University, and is on the faculty of the Boston
Psychoanalytic Institute. He is co-author (with John
Robertson) of the Jbrthcoming book, Drugs and the Public.
At the request of the Department of Defense and the Drug
Abuse Council, I traveled during August and September
1971 in Southeast Asia to study the problem of heroin use
among U.S. soldiers and    to advise on the drug
rehabilitation and treatment programs already in
operation there. I visited 10 of the total of 16 programs
and conducted hundreds of interviews with individuals
and groups: enlisted men, noncommissioned officers,
junior officers, and senior officers. I was allowed to go
completely on my own through barracks and clubs and in
the field. A few of the interviews were formal, but in most
of them the conversation was unrestricted and relaxed. I
dressed in casual, nonmilitary clothes in order to present
as easy an appearance as possible, and I told the men I in-
terviewed that my purpose was to learn more about the
social setting in which drug use took place.
My observations proved to be contrary to what I expected
and to what we know about heroin use in the United
States. In Vietnam heroin use is not the habit of a deviant
loner from an extremely deprived urban background,
but is a social activity occurring mostly in small groups of
friends. In this setting there is little of the basic social
taboo against heroin use that predominates in most social

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