Last year's Secretary's Report stressed that the year 1970 had been marked, in addition to the publication of the International Annals of Criminology, by the 6th International Criminology Congress, the 20th International Course in Criminology and the Third series of Aquinas Lectures.

I shall try today to explain the current situation at the end of the year 1971, as it applies to the organisation of the Society, its active elements and its scientific work without going into this later point too much, however, as Mr Pinatel is devoting his annual report to it.

L'histoire du khat est millénaire, mais du point de vue d'un contrôle éventuel elle ne date que depuis environ quarante ans.

En 1935, la commission consultative de la Société des Nations du trafic de l'opium a dû s'occuper du problème du khat, mais les études à sa disposition ne prouvaient pas que les effets nuisibles du khat atteignaient une ampleur justifiant une intervention internationale. Cependant, certains pays avaient déjà interdit la culture, la vente ou l'utilisation du khat (la Somalie britannique en 1921 et de nouveau en 1939; le Kenya en 1934).

Les effets somatiques de la toxicomanie aux opiacés ont fait l'objet de descriptions discordantes. La presse fait largement état de la surmortalité et de la morbidité de l'héroïnomane, une thèse française récente estime que la toxicomanie est un fléau médical autant que social (1). Sapira, dans une revue exhaustive, énumère longuement les accidents pouvant émailler la vie d'un toxicomane (2). Par contre, un autre travail récent affirme l'absence de complications médicales majeures chez l'intoxiqué chronique à l'opium (3).

Notre but est de préciser à propos de 180 opiomanes représentant 110 hospitalisations en un peu plus d'un an (4) la réalité du retentissement somatique de cette toxicomanie.

Depuis 1964 on a observé parmi les détenus dans les prisons de Copenhague un nombre croissant de personnes abusant de stupéfiants et, en 1967, a été constaté le premier cas d'hépatite.

Etant donné que la maladie se présente sous une forme anictérique et dans certains cas même sans symptômes cliniques, nous pratiquons depuis 1967 automatiquement le GP-transaminase sur les toxicomanes, immediatement après leur emprisonnement — l'analyse est répetée ensuite toutes les deux semaines.

A questionnaire survey of illicit drug and alcohol usage was undertaken simultaneously of two populations, 547 middle class secondary private school students and 7,000 university undergraduates. Both groups were surveyed with respect to drug and alcohol practices as well as a broad range of demographic, social, and personal factors. Users were compared with non-users and a characteristic profile of users was delineated. The profile of the high school user of alcohol was found to parallel that of the high school user of illicit drugs. In the university student population greater divergence was found between the two types of users. Comparisons were made between the high school and university student profiles which revealed interesting similarities and differences. Comparisons were made also between moderate and extreme users of alcohol, revealing areas of difference both in the personal-social area and in respect to illicit drug practices.

Drug abuse is considered by many in the United States to be the number one public health problem facing the country today. The increasing incidence of drug abuse and consequent addiction to narcotic drugs, especially heroin, particularly in younger groups in large urban areas pose serious social as well as medical problems. The drug abusers are vulnerable to localized infections, hepatitis, and also face the possibility of death from accidents involving overdose of drugs (1). Prior to 1943, relatively few deaths among addicts occured from overdosage. Ten years later, however, the Office of the Medical Examiner, City of New York, reported 100 deaths due to narcotic addiction, while at the same time there were 541 deaths due to alcoholism. These figures assume significance, when we consider that there were approximately 350,000 alcoholics in the New York Metropolitan area, but only about 20,000 addicts according to the estimates of that time; indicating that the death rate among drug addicts is about three times that of alcoholics (2).

Our efforts in the treatment of drug addiction have been a series of failures. The presence of innumerable programs is proof positive that none of them are particularly successful. First, let's take a brief look at the various programs.

In 1939 the Federal Government established hospitals in Lexington and fort Worth. The patients who went there voluntarily stayed for five and a half months, at an expense of up to $1,000 a month. The relapse rate is not known because of the difficulty in following these patients. It is not an exaggeration to estimate it at 90 % or 95 %.

1.1. Il y a au Brésil un grand effort, notamment dans les secteurs administratifs et universitaires, pour préparer le pays dans son élan pour son développement. Il est évident que, pour cela, nos yeux doivent être tournés vers la jeunesse. Le recensement démographique de 1970, en reproduisant les chiffres exacts, a démontré que plus de la moitié de la population brésilienne — 52,7 % — a moins de vingt ans. Et bien plus : 41,7 % de la population se place jusqu'à l'âge de quatorze ans. La révélation du recensement démontre, dans la froideur des chiffres, les responsabilités des secteurs productifs de la nation, car s'il est certain que 41,7 % de la population est en âge scolaire, il est non moins certain que, d'accord avec les données de l'Association brésilienne de l'éducation, 40 % de la population infantile n'a pas d'écoles suffisantes, déficience qui est en train d'être corrigée avec la nouvelle planification éducationnelle. En d'autres calculs, sur 22 millions d'enfants, 6 millions, au moins, ne fréquentent pas d'établissements scolaires, ce qui met en évidence une marginalisation par la base.

During the school year 1968/69 an outside survey showed about half the students at a junior high school in Berkeley, California had used drugs ranging from nicotine to alcohol to “speed.” There was quite a bit of abuse involved especially from overdoses of reds (seconal).

Midway through the year, the Dean of Boys compiled a list of suspected drug abusers and gave the counselors the names of their counselees who were on the list. About 15 out of the 25 on the list were my counselees. The boys heard about the list through the grapevine and started to discuss their habits with me quite freely. It developed that about ten of them met regularly once or twice a week to discuss—among other things—their personal use of drugs. They said they would like to have me meet with them, if possible. We then decided to hold regular weekly meetings.

An account in Summary of a Three-Year Effort by the Community Services Division of Eagleville Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in a Large County of Eastern Pennsylvania to Assist Communities in Understanding the Nature of the Drug Problem and Mounting Efforts to Combat It.

In February, 1969, Eagleville Hospital, a rehabilitation center that treats alcoholics and addicts together, was awarded a staffing grant by the National Institute of Mental Health for the development of a program of treatment and prevention of addiction in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the third largest county in the State, with a population of 700,000. The responsibility for the development of the prevention program was assigned by Eagleville to its education and consultation service.