The Haight
Ashbury Free Clinic offers a 21 day outpatient heroin detoxification
program. In 1969, two years after the Haight Ashbury
Free Clinic opened, it offered the first outpatient heroin detoxification
program. The Haight Ashbury Free Clinic does not use methadone
treatment in the therapeutic setting. The therapy sessions are not
confrontational: they are a process. These sessions are one hour
in length and are attended by the recovering addict four to five
times a week. There are addicts of every socioeconomic class in
these meetings.
Bryan Jackson,(left) a heroin counselor
agrees that they have seen excellent results with naltrexone.
Naltrexone isn’t prescribed until the addict has been off heroin
and/or methadone for 30 days. It is not suggested to all addicts
that they take naltrexone after being clean for 30 days
Most of these addicts have repeatedly returned to active addiction
after undergoing the 21 day heroin detoxification program: recidivism.
When they have taken naltrexone, and stayed on it, the results
have been remarkable.
The results may prove to be a historical breakthrough in the treatment
of heroin addiction.
Both the Free Clinic and the Haight itself have a colorful history.
The Psychedelic Era and the Free Clinic were born at the same
time during the "summer of love" as if soulmates, one for the
other, in a mystical union like marriage. After the first "Human
Be-in" happened on January 14, 1967 in Golden Gate Park
with 30,000 hippies present to celebrate the ideals and support
the causes of a generation, the media estimated that 100,000 hippies
in-the-works would be hitting the Haight to make the scene a full-time
happening. The only chord this struck with people in mainstream
society was panic, and it rippled out to all areas of the community.
An architect’s son, Robert Conrich, who had dropped out
and not become an acid casualty, envisioned establishing a medical
facility. Conrich and Smith found a vacant dental office on 558
Clayton just off Haight where many would soon be "ON" and looking
for a way off. The first staff included health professionals and
people from the homeless community
