The Narcotic Educational Foundation of America presents (0:46) “The Dangerous Drugs” (0:53), a 1956 anti-drug movie in which pre-presidential narrator Ronald Reagan examines the health risks and growing societal problem of barbiturate and amphetamine abuse.
Drugs in dark bottles (1:48). Barbiturate pills processed in industrial machines (1:54). A lady purchases drugs from a pharmacy (1:58). A montage of women and men taking drugs with water (2:08). A man takes barbiturates at a party (3:12). He shares the pills with friends (3:51). They take the barbiturates with alcohol, increasing the stupor and intoxication (4:46).
A doctor (5:07) explains that barbiturate is a derivative of barbituric acid, and acts as a depressant on the central nervous system. They were prescribed to induce sleep, anesthesia, and as an anticonvulsant. A nurse prepares the drugs (5:35); a doctor writes out a prescription for a patient (6:03). But many people misuse drugs. An elderly woman consults a doctor (6:14). She suffers half-hidden anxieties and despair, leaning on the crutch of drugs. The doctor prescribes her barbiturates (6:43).
At home, she struggles to put on clothes (7:05). She takes more pills (7:48), then collapses (8:30). A barbiturate overdose is often the result drug-induced forgetfulness. Many such deaths may be listed as suicides.
In the laboratory of Dr. Horace W. Magoun at the University of California Los Angeles, researchers use electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain waves, graphically revealing the difference in the activity of normal brains and of those impaired by barbiturates and amphetamines (8:59). Doctors Keith and Eva Killam (UCLA Departments of Pharmacology and Anatomy) place electrodes onto the scalp of their human subject (9:23). They also record the brain waves of a cat (9:43). They wake the sleeping cat (9:56), and mark the point of arousal (10:06). They also use an oscilloscope (10:24).
The EEG results displayed onscreen (10:32) reveal that arousal from normal sleep (10:45) looks markedly different from that from barbiturate-induced sleep (10:49). Under the influence of barbiturates, the animal was unresponsive.
Another EEG shows bursts of excessively high frequency in the brain waves under amphetamines (11:04). Amphetamine is a stimulant (11:21). It is often used to maintain wakefulness.
Many truck drivers fortified themselves for long runs with amphetamine (11:51). The driver’s POV shot implies confusion and distortion (12:15). He loses control of the truck, screams; the windshield is smashed horrendously (12:47). The driver-side door is demolished (12:57). Amphetamine is no substitute for rest.
Both drugs have become a serious part of the illegal drug traffic. Los Angeles City Hall flying California’s Bear Flag (13:30). Mr. Floyd Heffron, chief of the California State Board of Pharmacy (13:40) explains that barbiturates are sometimes called “goofballs.” Amphetamine is called “bennies” or “dexies.” They are beginning to approach the seriousness of the illegal traffic dealing in the opiates: opium, morphine, and heroin. A display of opiates with Chinese-language labeling (14:27).
Drug addiction eventually drives the individual user to crime. A man walks a narrow sidewalk to suspenseful music (14:32). He looks about, apprehensive, behind dark sunglasses (15:36). He enters a jewelry store (16:11), pockets some jewelry with a handkerchief, and sneaks back out (16:38). In a shadowy tunnel, he jumps into a car (17:17).
From 18:14, a woman recounts her drug-related demise to Lieutenant Carmel Cook (18:21) of the Torrance Police Department. The camera never fully reveals her face, instead showing her from behind (18:19), above (19:05); in extreme close-ups of her shifty eyes (18:15), and self-soothing hands (19:27). She remembers the isolation, thoughts of suicide, and frightening apathy. She and others pushed an overdosing friend out of their car, thinking it better he dies in a street corner, rather than in their car.
From 23:16, an addict suffers withdrawal in a tiny bed. He clutches a blanket around his neck (23:30). He clutches the metal bar above the bed, shaking violently (23:52). The withdrawal period may produce grand mal convulsions, and even death (24:03).
The beginning of the solution lies in the widespread education of of the public. Educational pamphlets read: “Warning to Parents,” “Youth and Narcotics,” etc. (24:42).
Today barbiturates have been replaced by benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepines in most medical applications.
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