December 17, 1957

Mr. Charles Winick

Research Director

Joint Legislative Committee
on Narcotic Study

State of New York

Room 918 - 18 West 45th Street

New York 36, New York

Dear Mr. Winick:

It is untrue that the Lexington hospital was established
as a Demonstration Center to guide the States in their own
hospital plans. The two hospitals, Lexington and Fort Worth
were established to help addicts throughout the United
States who wanted to be cured and have no place to go, and
to treat Federal prisoner addicts. It was recognised that
the Federal narcotic prisoners were in the main prisoners
only because of the narcotic regulative laws and that they
fundamentally were emotionally sick people who would be
harmed rather than benefitted by prison life.

There is a provision, as you know, for treating
probationer patients. These are addict violators who would
be put on probation with the requirement that they go to
one of these hospitals and accept treatment. This provision
has been practically nullified by fanatical laws, that prevent
judges from putting addicts on probation and by incessant
propaganda that has distorted the thinking of many judges
about addiction.

Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the Congressioni
hearings on the hospital bill. It is possible that in these
hearings some one mentioned demonstrations for the States -
in order to boast the arguments for the hospitals, and if
my memory serves me correctly, the bill as passed authorizes
the giving of information to the States, but this was a -
gesture not a specific purpose.

The hospitals would, of course, give information to the
States and in my time, as well as later, would have admitted |
State physicians to the hospitals for purpose of study, but in
my three years at Lexington (the first three years of the
Hospital) and my six years supervising both hospitals from
Washington, no State asked for or was offered anything.
~ 2 =
Mr. Charles Winick--12/17/57

Of course, there has been a great deal of information about
narcotics dissiminated from Lexington, mainly through the
Addiction Research Laboratory that was established almost
immediately after the Hospital opened. It was largely on
the basis of the authority given to dissiminate information
that [I started this laboratory on its work,

YE am pleased that you are assisting the New York Joint
Legislative Committee and thet the approach of this Committee,
as I see it, is so different from that of the U. 8. Senate

Subcommittee, which was apparently blinded by the guidance

it got from an enforcement agency.

I congratulate you on your fine article in Law and
Contemporary Problems, Duke University, Winter, 1957. I
suppose you have seen the report on addiction by the American
Medical Association now being published in the AMA Journal.

Sincerely yours,

Lawrence Kolb