 It was a man on top of the car with a shotgun trying to shoot me. I feel like I've lost all my rights as a citizen. If I have to go to the legislature and die, none of this will help some other poor-were girl from getting in this trouble. For people you have just seen are real people, all victims of drug abuse. What drugs are we talking about? Not heroin, not dope. Over the years, the tragic consequences of narcotic addiction have been widely exposed. This report is concerned only with the abuse of two socially acceptable prescription drugs. Pills and capsules that you keep in your medicine chest, your night table, your pocket, your purse. We're talking about pet pills and sleeping pills. Amphetamines, the pet pills, are commonly called reducing pills and stay-awake pills. In a jargon of the misuser, there are Benny's, Hart's, co-pilots, and West Coast turn-a-brounds. Barbiturates, the sleeping pills bear colorful names like goofballs, red devils, yellow jackets, blue heavens, and rainbows. These rather gay and affectionate nicknames highlight the magnitude of the illegal traffics, and they also reflect the casual manner in which pet pills' sleeping pills are handled and consumed. To explain briefly, here is Dr. James L. Goddard, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Illegal trafficking in these drugs in this country is a very major problem today. About 10 billion of these pills manufactured each year for legal uses. About half of these, or 5 billion, find their ways into illegal channels and are ultimately misused. 10 billion doses. Simple mathematical translation. Enough pet pills to keep every man, woman, and child in the United States awake and jumping for about a week. And enough sleeping pills to plunge them into a round-the-clock stupor for another week. The demand is enormous. The amphetamines are central nervous system stimulants, and as such, they're often used to buoy up a patient's spirit or used in help controlling an individual's appetite when weight reduction is desired. They barbiturates until nervous system depressants, and they're used to calm a patient, to help sedate an individual, to help assist in sleep. But here is the hardcore of truth, which has not yet gotten through to millions of American adults and teenagers. Pet pills and sleeping pills, when him properly used, can be just as dangerous as taking dope. And the results of drug abuse can be just as tragic, sometimes even worse. Well, drug abuse is the intentional misuse of a drug by an individual when it's not been prescribed by the physician for the specific purpose, specific use for that individual. Now, we have to recognize that drugs today are very potent, and that the use for a purpose other than originally prescribed can cause great harm rather than the good that was originally intended. This is particularly true with the amphetamines and the barbiturates. These drugs affect the central nervous system. One is a depressant, the other is a stimulant. And their continued misuse can cause mental, physical deterioration, can lead to severe emotional problems, alterations of the psyche, may lead to suicide or accidental death. I was very lucky that I wasn't really hurt until while driving for a firm. I tried to make a trip that I shouldn't have tried to make. Too long? Too long of a trip, staying up too much. No sleep? No sleep. Were you taking pills? Yes, sir. Pills, pills have to stay awake. Well, as I started seeing things, I saw to begin with a car sitting in front of me. As if as though I'd woken up from a sleep as a lady standing beside the car, telling me it was a man on top of the car with a shotgun trying to shoot me. And I began to try to shake him off going down the road by swerving and jamming on brakes and what have you. After staying with a wheel and all trying to get rid of him and shooting back at him, I had a pistol with me and I shot back at him. He was still there determined to get me, it looked like. I come into a town not knowing where I was or anything. I figured maybe by wrecking the truck I could shake him up enough I could get away from him. I aimed it for a large pecan tree, but very fortunately I didn't hit it. I did take down a fire plug and a few other things around there. What happened when the police took you downtown? Well, they was already on to what had happened by my condition and all. I didn't believe my story. I finally got one to go down and take a look at the truck, hold the windshield that I had shot. This victim of drug abuse exhibited some of the typical psychological symptoms of pet pill poisoning. Feelings of persecution, reckless behavior, seeing things or people that aren't there. One of the unfortunate things about amphetamines and their abuse is that the individual himself often doesn't perceive or see the changes that occur. He doesn't realize what's happening to him. There are some physical changes such as changes in the ability to find movements, the discriminatory movements. Other changes involve the heart and the rate at which it beats. The heart rate may increase greatly. It may even lead to total cardiovascular collapse. The individual's physical appearance may change. He may look entirely different under the use of these drugs and without them. Here's a photograph of two photographs of a young man taken two months apart. I think you can see perhaps the marked change in this individual's physical appearance that occurred in this short period of time with the heavy use of amphetamines. Pet pills taken in excess have a serious potential for harm. But the abuse of barbiturates with sedatives and sleeping pills can be far more dangerous for barbiturates today are the number one cause of death by poisoning in the United States. Abusers of sleeping pills and sedatives fall into two major groups. The first group, adults who take self-administered doses to calm jittery nerves and secure restful sleep. Because overdoses of sleeping pills produce mental confusion and distortion of time, the victim loses count of how many pills have been taken and the results can be coma and death. The second group is made up of kick-happy juveniles out for cheap thrills, eager to be part of the gang. This includes teenagers and young adults from every section of the country and every economic bracket. Like narcotics and other mind-affecting chemicals, overdoses of barbiturates offer a blurred escape from the facts of life and personality problems and release the victim from all sense of obligation and guilt. The drug problem as I have observed it exists among the middle and upper income bracket people rather than the poorer class of people. After they lost his job, his wife divorced him. He was separated from his family. He was in hospitals at different times. The doctors tried to get him off the drugs, but he couldn't seem to later on resist using them for some reason. As far as I know, he continues to use them whenever he can get his hands upon them. He has not been in the hospital recently, but he is still addicted to the drugs. He still takes them. The individual who is misusing barbiturates commonly finds that he has to take larger and larger amounts in order to produce the desired effect. Now, as this goes on, he ultimately reaches a dosage level where if he fails to receive the drug, he becomes physically ill. When this takes place, he's truly addicted. And as with other addictions to the hard narcotics, the withdrawal of this individual from the drug becomes a serious problem. In fact, many feel that it can be more serious and dangerous to withdraw a barbiturate addict from his drug than a narcotic user from heroin or morphine. When withdrawal does occur, the person becomes very ill. He experiences pain, may go into deliriums, have high fever, and convulsions. The individual may die. In the lifespan of man, youth has traditionally been the moment for experimentation, adventure, self-analysis, and rebellion. Rebellion against parental authority and social restrictions. Since the beginning of time, however, growing older has taken care of all that. But the swift advances of modern technology have changed the pattern. An overdose of Benny's can wash out every inhibition. And a couple of goofballs can transport you to a limbo world where nothing matters, not even you. The following is what happens when Benny's and goofballs taken together are abused over a period of time. I had a very bad accident on the influence of these drugs. I had 36 stitches in the head and face. I went through the windshield. It was at night about one o'clock I was coming home. I just totally blacked out at the wheel. Before I blacked out at the wheel, I was seeing the road move. I was seeing cars that weren't there, lights that were there, weren't there. It was all black. And the next thing I knew, I woke up bleeding in the face. I couldn't see nothing. I was in the hospital. I quit for about a year. Then I ran into this friend of mine that I met that got me the pills in the first place. And he had more pills. I started taking them on the weekends. How do you feel it's affected your life? Well, I feel like I've lost all my rights as a citizen. Whenever something goes wrong, it falls on me. I've been sent to jail now for disorderly conduct when I was just self-defense. But because of my record, I was found guilty and I was put away. How did these drugs affect your mind? In my mind, I had an IQ of 120. I was very alert in school, very alert on the job. And I noticed I was losing this alertness the more I would take these pills. I would find out I was a little slower in my mind. My body, physically, my blood pressure is low. I'm nervous all the time. I was an upset over little things that would ordinarily not bother me. I went to the doctors and he said it was the cause of these pills that did this. I didn't have no idea when I went into this that it would affect me later on as it has. I know a lot of boys that had the same problem I have. And none of them know up until now. Now most of them know. I say most of them because some of them have went on to hire more deadly drugs. You mean like heroin? Yes, sir. You didn't see me in the drug. You are about to hear from an 18-year-old youngster convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. The purpose of this live interview was to record any statement this youngster might wish to make on advice of counsel relating to his experience with drugs. The interview was conducted throughout by defense counsel who asked all the questions. Some were not directly related to the subject matter of this report. This irrelevant material has been deleted in the interest of justice. What were these pills? Were they pills or powders? These little teeny capsules. What were they called? Red birds, blue hammies, yellow jackets. Were they drugs? Yes, sir. The transcript of this boy's testimony during trial shows that he and an older male companion were involved in a series of offenses across five states before they were arrested for murder. The court record also shows that his older male companion consistently supplied him with drugs every day for a period of two months. No, sir. Had you ever taken any drugs or pills or any powders or insubstance or liquid that contained drugs before? That you know of. Oh, my mother came in. What was that, Ashford? Yes, sir. What effect if any of these red-boyed pills which you have characterized as a dangerous drug have on you, on your memory, on your body? Well, you're dizzy. You tend to remember nothing. You're tough enough. You go unconscious. You tend to remember nothing you've done, but the worst part about it is coming off of them. Now, do you have any advice for the teenagers or the children of America like yourself? Well, I would like to say if I have to go to the legislature and die and know this will help some other boy or girl from getting in this trouble, I'd like to say that keep away from people that mess with dope and drugs and stuff like that. For years now, the Food and Drug Administration has been fighting the underworld traffic in these drugs using every legal resource at its command. But it wasn't enough. These red-boyed pills and the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act limited FDA efforts. Brilliant scientific sleuthing and undercover investigation trace black-market drugs to their source of diversion from legitimate channels. But FDA couldn't take action until the drugs were proved to be interstate commerce moving across state lines. The Bushers had to be caught in the physical act of selling the drug illegally. And FDA inspectors had to have the cooperation of United States Marshals in order to make arrests and seizures. Decisive action by the President and the Congress was taken to plug these loopholes. The drug abuse control amendments were enacted by the Congress and signed into law by the President on July 15, 1965. The narcotics, some of these drugs, are very easily and very cheaply manufactured. Production has been rapidly increasing. Some of that production has been counterfeit. But more importantly, the Food and Drug Administration estimates that at least one half the annual production of certain useful drugs is being diverted to criminal traffic. Enough goofballs and pet pills, for instance, are being manufactured this year to provide two dozen pills to every man, woman and child in the United States. We know all too well that racketeers in this field are making easy victims of many of our finest young people. The Congress hopes, and I hope, that this act will put a stop to such vicious business. These amendments give us sharp teeth to enforce the Food and Drug Law, and we think will make a significant contribution towards helping us solve the problem. We will be able to require the manufacturers, the wholesalers, the distributors, and the retail pharmacists to maintain accurate records of their shipments and receipt of the barbiturates, the amphetamines, and other drugs of this nature. We will also have special agents who will work as undercover agents to help track down those drugs that are illegally diverted. These individuals will have the powers of summary arrest, power of seizure. All told, these amendments we think will make it possible to help solve the problem. We'll join with many other agencies and an educational campaign aimed at parents and teenagers to help them understand the dangers of misuse of these drugs. But it really comes down to how you and your own family treat drugs, whether you respect them the way they should be. If you do your part in this job, along with the enforcement activities, we can solve this national health problem. There are the facts. There is only one way to interpret them. Take these drugs only on doctor's orders and handle them with respect. Avoid the good-bad drug dilemma. This is Paul Newman at Universal Studios in Universal City, California. Thank you.