i can't recall how i think i know this, but i believe that mccarthy was
one of several congressmen with morphine (not heroin) habits supported by
a dc pharmacist while the federal bureau of narcotics looked the other way
-- certainly with harry anslinger's knowledge. there was a fair amount of
gray-market maintenance before methadone.  much of it likely was
cancer-related, and the fbn usually tolerated it (though there were some
notable exceptions); some was connected with private sanitarium care and
was sometimes a lot shadier.  but local police didn't devote much effort
to such investigations, state boards of pharmacy had very limited
investigatory resources, and while the fbn could be exceedingly nasty, its
field staff was relatively small.

jim baumohl


>   Of course, Senator Joseph McCarthy (1950s) was first an alcoholic and,
> toward the end of his political career, almost certainly a heroin addict
> (with Henry Anslinger supplying the drug, in order to protect him from
> exposure).
>
>                                Mark Haller
>
>>___________________________
>>
>>From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society on behalf of Jon Miller
>>Sent: Wed 10/4/2006 12:20 PM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: alcoholism in US Congress
>>
>>
>>
>>Thomas F. Marshall, a Whig from Kentucky, may have been the first
>>degenerate Congressman to blame alcohol. He served in the
>>Twenty-Seventh Congress (1841-1843). Does anyone know of an earlier
>>example?
>>
>>His sympathetic biographer, surveying the whole of Marshall's life,
>>began: "Character, I may say at once, was Tom Marshall's weak point."
>>(See the March, 1874 number of the Galaxy magazine, which contains
>>Paul R. Shipman's long article republished later as A Handful of
>>Bitter Herbs).
>>
>>Marshall was a heavy drinker; he described himself as "one of your
>>spreeing gentry." His drinking habits were described and attacked in
>>the press; he was accused of being drunk on the House floor. In May
>>1842, he gave a pair of famous temperance speeches announcing his
>>(short-lived) conversion to Washingtonian teetotalism. Marshall was
>>not re-elected.
>>
>>Here are a few quotes from a speech he gave to the Great Temperance
>>Meeting of May, 1842 in New York. They are remarkable, in part, for
>>the way he brags and jokes about his drinking. He also concedes that
>>yes, he was drunk on the House floor. The quotes are copied from a
>>pamphlet I read at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
>>
>>"Well, then, gentlemen, within all the broad territory of of the
>>Union, there does not breathe a man who knew less or cared less about
>>temperance societies, or the progress of the temperance cause than
>>your humble servant did some four months ago.  I had never been in a
>>temperance meeting in my life, and I make the acknowledgement with
>>shame and contrition.  I never had been in a Temperance meeting in my
>>life, and if I picked up a Temperance paper, or a political paper
>>with anything about Temperance in it, I threw it to one side as
>>smacking of fanaticism and as altogether beneath the attention of a
>>gentleman of my vast ambition and extraordinary talents! (Loud
>>laughter and applause.) (page 2)
>>
>>. . .
>>
>>"There is one point, however, that it may not be improper to touch
>>upon.  With regard to this subject I have necessarily had to speak of
>>myself.  I have said more on this subject perhaps than I ought to
>>have said (cries of "no, no,") and certainly more than I should have
>>said, had I not heard that I was expected to allude somewhat to my
>>own case, and from what has been said in the public prints.  I found
>>from them that some little portion of my private history, which I had
>>hoped would ever have been private, was known to you.  A good deal
>>has been said that is the truth in this matter (here he paused, and
>>continued in a solemn tone,) and far more than the truth was told
>>about me.  And that, too, is one of the evils of intemperance.
>>(Cheers and laughter.)  Bad as it is, in its best estate, and bad
>>enough that is, God knows, a man has always friends or enemies enough
>>to make it a great deal worse. (Cheers and laughter.) In my case, I
>>am modest enough to admit--my case was bad enough, but it was'nt
>>[sic] so bad as was stated. (Cheers.)  But oh, if my example could
>>bring back to this cause any one who has now commenced the career of
>>intemperance--if it could only bring back one human being who has
>>commenced such a career, he is perfectly welcome to the benefit of
>>all my experience. (Terrific cheering.)  (page 5)
>>
>>. . .
>>
>>"The papers . . . say that when I made a speech [to the House of
>>Representatives] I was pretty comfortably and most considerably
>>inebriated. (Cheers and laughter.) And, in all those five or six
>>speeches, except one, I give you my honor as a gentleman, I was as
>>sober as a judge. (Loud cheers and laughter.) And some of those
>>speeches cost me a good deal of time and considerable mental labor
>>and activity." (page 10)
>>
>>(Citation: Thomas F. Marshall, Two Speeches of the Hon. Thomas F.
>>Marshall, of Kentucky, before the Great Temperance Meeting, held in
>>the City of New York, on the 5th and 6th of May, 1842.  Louisville,
>>Ky.: W. N. Haldeman, 1842.)
>>
>>-- Jon Miller, Dept. of English, Univ. of Akron, Akron OH 44325-1906
>>
>>
>