Characteristics of new admissions to a narcotics treatment program: 1970-1974

Study was made of the demographic and drug-using characteristics of new admissions to a narcotic treatment program over the course of a 4-year period. Samples were drawn of 100 new admissions during the month of April in each year from 1970 to 1974. Results indicate that the treatment program under study came to be working with caseloads increasingly court referred, increasingly nonminority, and less frequently prepared to volunteer for methadone maintenance treatment. New admissions claimed to have delayed entrance into treatment based on the geographic inaccessibility of treatment programs or the fact that they did not consider themselves ready for treatment. Implications for the provision of treatment to heroin users are discussed.