For nearly 40 years, in the mid 20th century, Lexington, Ky was home to the infamous U.S. Narcotics Farm.
Nicknamed “Narco,” this institution was a federal prison, drug rehabilitation center, research laboratory, and farm all rolled into one. Its mission was not only to imprison and rehabilitate drug offenders, but the controversial facility also set out to find a cure for drug addiction.
From 1935 through 1975, nearly every person convicted of a drug-related crime spent some time at Narco. The facility was somewhat like the Betty Ford Clinic of its day; often housing celebrities who were battling some very harsh addictions.
Research at the Lexington Narcotics Farm
The Lexington narcotics farm is also credited with making huge advancements in the research and treatment of drug addiction. Researchers at the facility studied everything from the use of methadone to treat heroin withdrawal to drugs that blocked the effects of opiates.
Though the facility is touted for its advancement of drug addiction, some of the experiments that were conducted there were very controversial.
One such experiment was exposing inmates and patients to a wide variety of drugs at various doses. This experiment was conducted to discover the addictiveness of a drug and how much of a certain drug needed to be taken for someone to truly form a dependency.
CIA Research With LSD
Another harsh reality is the fact the CIA commonly funded experiments involving the effects and possible uses of LSD. No one knows whether such experiments took place at the Lexington narcotics farm, but at many prisons throughout the country, human "patients" were routinely treated like lab rats and guinea pigs at the hands of these researchers.
The patients were often exposed to large doses of LSD without their knowledge or even against their will.
When congress discovered that these types of experiments were being conducted, they quickly shut down a number of these facilities, including Narco in 1975. The closure was not directly connected to the Congressional investigation - institutional care was also being migrated to smaller local treatment clinics during the same period - however many people reported that similar research was taking place there.
Even though those centers were transformed into drug treatment centers, there still remains a shortage of drug treatment facilities in the U.S. It would be tremendous if the government would spend far more than it does now to build additional drug rehab centers all over the country.
However, it doesn't appear that that is going to happen any time soon.
It is interesting to note that because of some of the experiments conducted by the CIA at various prisons across the country; it is now illegal to use federal prisoners in any form of drug research.
The story of the U.S. Narcotics Farm is a fascinating snippet of American History. If you are interested in reading more about it, check out The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America's First Prison for Drug Addicts.
Dennis Dufrene is the resident historian and technical writer. With this background, Dennis brings insight and accuracy to the stories published here at Top Secret Writers. Dennis has 314 post(s) at Top Secret Writers
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