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TWX CODE NO
LEX KY 477

FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY

 

IN REPLYING, ADDRESS THE

MEDICAL OFFICER IN CHARGE
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE HOSPITAL March 22, 1951

Dr. Lawrence Kolb

Medical Deputy Director
Department of Mental Hygiene
1320 K Street

Sacramento, California

Dear Dr. Kolbs

I am aware of the fact that you are about to retire
again; in fact someone told me recently that you had already
retired from California, in which case this letter, I pre-
sume, will follow until it reaches you.

In the January issue of THE NATIONAL SHERIFF, Mr. Anslinger
writes under the heading “Crime and Narcotics" as follows: -

"In a study we made of a considerable group selected
at random from the records it was learned that the first
arrest for offenses other than narcotic law violations
preceded, sometimes by as much as 8 to 10 years, the
time when narcotic addiction began. This confirmed a
study conducted by the United States Public Health
Service wherein the fact was very forcibly brought out
that a criminal addict was, in the vast majority of
cases, a criminal before he became addicted; in fact
in 225 cases studied at that time, every criminal
among them had committed crime before the use of nar-
cotics was begun.

“From our studies, it can definitely be concluded
that drug addiction is one of the later phases of the
criminal career of the addict (this study applied only
to addiction to opium and its derivatives, and not to
marihuana, which is frequently a prelude to crime)."

He refers to your report of sane years ago entitled "Drug
Addiction in Its Relation to Crime". I would like to have
your comments on his interpretation of your data.
a

We have been plagued with many writers from various publi-
cations, including INSIDE DETECTIVE STORIES and WOMAN'S HOME
COMPANION, doing stories on teen-age addiction. Professor —
Maurer from the University of Louisville, who did the early
work on the addict argot, and I have contracted with the
Charles C. Thomas Publishing Company to do a book for their
series AMERICAN LECTURES IN PUBLIC PROTECTION. I hope that
you will be in a position to let us have your very valuable
comment on some of the manuscript when we get that far along.

Sincerely,

  

vit tor H. Vogel,
Medical Officer in Charge

  

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