DRUG SCENE AMONG ASIAN-AMERICANS

The Dana Award was extremely beneficial. We had to learn about Dana. Dana is giving without any expectations. It’s the pure act of giving, and that’s Buddhism. Out of the Dana Award, we started an Asian—American recovery group among Asian- Americans, an AA type of group, a self-support group of Asians helping Asians to stay clean and sober; and that group is going strong. Right now, Asian—American drug abusers need a place where they can feel comfortable in discussing their drug problems, and talk over things with other Asians. A lot of Asians are helping each other stay clean and sober from drugs. We’re appreciative of the help we got from the National Association of Buddhist Women.

Clinic’s Programs Studied by Foreign Visitors.

In San Francisco, we treated last year 400 to. 600 different Asian—Americans for substance use problems. No place in the world, no place else in the United States, do they have a higher utilization of Asian-Americans participating in treatment for drug problems. It’s so remarkable that we get visitors from Japan. A lady came from Japan to study our work with Asian stimulant abuses. That’s the second big drug use problem we are seeing in Asians now. Nikkei youths are into the use of cocaine. She came because she’s seen a lot of Japanese youths using cocaine and amphetamine and wanted to learn from us what our treatment processes were. We got a whole contingent from the People’s Republic of China -- 4 people. They’ve never been out of Peking, yet they spoke perfect English. They were very intelligent people. They sat down with me, and it was funny that the first words they said to me were that they have no drug problems in the People’s Republic of China. So why were they here? I didn’t understand this. They said, “Well, we’re interested in what your program is seeing in terms of Chinese youths.” We began by saying that we have this problem of Quaalude in Chinese-American youth. They asked what Quaalude was. We said that it’s a sleeping pill. All their eyes went wide open. They said that they had the same problem; the kids in China were also taking these sleeping pills and tranquilizers. So we were able to share our treatment protocols with them.

Other Drug Abuse Problems Among Asians.

Our programs have expanded to treat a lot of Asian-Americans with specific drug abuse problems, Quaalude still being the number one drug, followed very quickly by cocaine. Cocaine is a stimulant drug. Cocaine makes people excited, awake, alert, but it robs them of their own natural energy chemicals; and after a long period; of use, instead of being alert, people get more morose and irritable. They get into a depressed state-- emotionally and physically lethargic. At that stage, they want treatment. They want to stop, but they can’t stop. It’s like any drug that causes this addiction process.

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