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JAMA. 1970;214(13):2327.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Two decades ago the problem of drug abuse, except for alcoholism, was a minor one. During the 1960s, use of a variety of hallucinogens, opiates, stimulants, and sedatives increased rapidly; by 1970 drug abuse in all levels of society had become pandemic.

The social, psychological, and economic effects of the pandemic are perhaps more serious than the illnesses provoked in the drug abusers. Not to be overlooked, however, are sudden death, bacterial and mycotic endocarditis, septicemia, septic thrombophlebitis with septic pulmonary infarction, hepatitis, malaria, and tetanus. Citron et al¹ have recently added necrotizing angiitis (polyarteritis nodosa) to the list. They observed and studied 14 young patients (six women and eight men) with the disease. One of the patients used methamphetamine exclusively, and all except two patients admitted to the occasional administration of this drug intravenously. The spectrum of drugs used was wide; during a three-year period, one patient had . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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