One of the big problems plaguing law-enforcement officers dealing with
narcotics addicts is how to determine quickly and conclusively whether
a suspect is or is not on drugs. Most seasoned addicts are expert at
concealing needle marks . Although addicts show
withdrawal symptoms when they
are cut off from drugs for one to two days, in many cases there are no
legal grounds for holding suspects until the symptoms appear. The
solution, California's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement believes, lies in
a narcotic antagonist called N-allylnormor-phine, known commercially as
Nalline. As doctors at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital at Lexington, Ky.
have already discovered, Nalline, when injected under the addict's
skin, causes immediate withdrawal symptoms. In eight
months of testing, Narcotics Inspector Fred Brau-moeller and Dr. James
G. Terry, an Alameda County medical officer, also noted that Nalline
has a telltale effect on the eyes of people to whom it is administered:
while it causes a non-addict's pupils to constrict, it causes the
addict's pupils to dilat'e. Using the Nalline test, Inspector Brau-moeller and Dr. Terry have
achieved some spectacular results. Addict convictions in Oakland, they
report, have risen from 29 in 1955 to 150 in the last eight months, and
crimes largely attributed to addicts have declined 12%.
