Special Report on Narcotics
WNYC's Special Reports Division interviews Dr. Robert Baird, director of HAVEN (Help Addicts Voluntarily End Narcotics), a drug treatment center located in Harlem, discusses drug problems in urban New York.
Dr. Robert Baird describes his clinic HAVEN, Help Addicts Voluntarily End Narcotics, a drug treatment center located in Harlem.
He describes meeting a 9-year-old heroin addict, which led him to start the clinic.
He sees his patients nightly. He describes the process by which he treats his patients. He sees methadone as a "fast buck."
It takes a year to year-and-a-half to kick drugs. He has kids return to school and adults return to their job. He sees drug users as lacking in discipline and having a hedonistic personality. He doesn't see addiction as a sickness. He thinks addicts want to stay high all the time. He sees a male presence as important.
He sees marijuana users as "psychologically impoverished" and are addicts. Sarnow offers up hypothetical examples of normative recreational use of marijuana, which Baird rejects unequivocally. He asks people to teach children culture and educate them.
He talks about his testimony in front of the senate involving Vietnam veterans. A young man, purportedly on marijuana, gave up his group's location, leading to many deaths. He had hallucinated.
Baird does not distinguish between hard and soft drugs. He feels that those in charge of drug control in the NYC government understands the problem.
He describes the tell tale signs of addiction, particularly of heroin use, but barbiturates too.
He advocates corporal punishment on young children to teach them right and wrong. He feels kids need responsibility to survive.
He goes into HAVEN's therapy. He talks about children not having the desire to work. He is authoritative. He feels the city and state venerate the drug addict.
He believes that methadone treatment's success rate is inflated. His rate of success is about 30%. Methadone's success is reported at 85%. There is a black market for methadone.
He advocates a watchdog/oversight organization to make sure treatment and treatment programs work. They would make sure that treatment centers would follow his guidelines.
He funds HAVEN out of his own pocket. There are no public funds as part of his clinics funding.
He addresses parents about how they should treat and check on their children.
Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection
WNYC archives id: 150788
Municipal archives id: T7494
