United States Narcotics Farm
September 27, 2008 by Ron Garrison
Filed under David Stephenson, Mark Cornelison, Second Look, Slideshows, UK Athletics
Before Lexington was known for its Selectric typewriters and its UK basketball team, it was known for a Utopian haven for America’s drug addicts. A new book, The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of American’s
First Prison for Drug Addicts, traces the history of The United States Narcotic Farm on Leestown Road.
My mother, a nurse, worked there back in the day. She used to ride her bike all the way out there each day.
Thanks for the article, and the photo essay.
I had a very short experience. The last year of Narco and the worked to retire after Narco became a Federal Prison. The old building is there as always. a few changes as the entrance but basically the same. There are several people around who worked there during it all and I hope they find this and respond.
Thanks
My Aunt Rose, a RN worked there in the 40s and 50s.The fasade has always been in my memory, as the place she worked. Aunt Rose really never spoke of her work even as she sat with me at old St Joseph’s when I had polio in 1949. Another Lexington story, especially for folks from the eastern part of the state.
I lived on Spur Rd during the late 1940s and 1950’s. I had never heard the institution be called Narco until this article. It was always just refered to as the Narcotic Farm. Who came up with the term Narco?
Sure, I remember the “Narco”. I began working at the V.A. Hospital on Leestown Pike in 1946. Of course the V.A. built bigger and better on Cooper Drive. I just never bothered to find out what happened to the Narcotic Farm as we were two seperate facilities.
Does anyone realize the irony/remarkability that Lex., KY had both a Narco Farm and the place where LSD was tested on mental patients at Eastern State Hospital both on Leestown Road?
Wonder what else was really going on when green grass scared the living daylights out of Big Bros. enough to drive Nixon mad(der) and make us so deep in dept fighting a war on the poor that it’s developed nations and nation-states whose total economy is delevering our US illegal drugs.
HELP OUR ADDICTS. And stop stealing my tax dollars for your war which is a bigger disaster than Iraq and Vietnam combined.
But those two places in Lex around the same time, interesting.
Hopefully this new account will finally provide a tangible description and honor the many men and women who worked at “Narco”. The “rediscovery” of this imagery ideally forces the Commonwealth to address the current epidemic of Prescription drug abuse which dwarfs that of yesterday. History, failure to remember and being doomed to repeat it. The irony is staggering!
I recall attending a concert there on a summer evening in 1970 (I think). It seemed to me it was a rock band, maybe ELO? maybe Pacific Gas & Electric? Not sure I remember exactly which band it was, but it was a well known rock group. Such a strange event. It had been advertised on the local Lexington radio station. I had a date. We arrived at the guard house, were told “yes, there was a concert there tonight, and yes, it was free”. We drove the long, forbidding drive from Leestown RD up to this incredibly imposing “Big House” style building…something right out of an Albert Speer Germania drawing. We walked through the hospital to an underground auditorium…and sure enough, we were treated to a great rock concert. Amazing. And free! What a strange experience to attend a rock concert in a drug rehab hospital, and to even learn about this amazing institution in Lexington.
did this place help any one? And why do people keep relapsing and they really want to stop in there heart?
My family knows Narco all too well. My dad was a nurse’s aide in the dispensary there in the 60’s-early 70’s. Twice, the patients jumped him and tried to kill him. The last time, about 17 of them, managed to cut off his oxygen supply to the brain. He received a brain injury and was never the same. He had to retire way too early on disability. The normal, nice guy was turned into a violent, alcoholic who abused his wife and 5 children (most of which have PTSD now). Thanks alot NARCO.
I lived at Narco (yes — that’s how we all called it) as a child. There were houses on the grounds for some of the staff.
It’s easy to tell scary stories about Narco, and the internet is full of them. They’re not all mistaken, but the story is a complex one, with mostly good intentions frustrated by power of heroin and other drugs to enslave human beings. The treatment failures weren’t for want of trying.
As for the patients — I’m sure there were some violent offenders there, but there were nice and interesting people too.
Thanks for exposing who is the real criminals here– the CIA and the doctors who destroy in the name of help. Look at how it is still being done, ads on TV even, for mind altering drug that harm again in the name of help. Very unacceptable.
I work on a talk show called State of Affairs from WFPL in Louisville. I thought I would comment to let you know that we’re having the authors of the Narcotic Farm book (two of whom also made the film) on our call in show on January 5th.
We are a call-in show, so if anyone would like to share memories or stories about the subject, we welcome you: 502-814-TALK or soa@wfpl.org. We’re on the air at 11am Eastern and you can listen live online at http://www.wfpl.org.
I’ve been doing research for the show and the Narcotic Farm’s story is definitely fascinating – I had never heard of it despite growing up in Louisville. Should be an interesting hour. Thanks!
I worked at Narco during the 60s. My dissertation was based on the institution. I also collected the “toasts” the prisoners used to chant that formed the foundation of “rap.” The patients put on plays, jazz concerts, painted and sculpted. They also put out their own newspaper. I still have several issues. Among the talking therapies, we had chances to try out different ideas, such as “through the Looking Glass.” In all, it was an exciting time.
There was no mention, apparently, of Kolb Hall that was a mental health treatment facility on the grounds, but for foreign nationals. There were several Chinese sojourners who were there many years.
Damn Melvin I wish I could see some of those newspapers. I’m a nostagia freak.
Melvin that was my reply to your post
Saw a documentary tonight and it was very enlightening. I always thought Lexington was just a fed joint. I live in NYC and when I was a young girl I used to hear guys talking about being at Lexington doing time. And to see that some of the great jazz musicians were patients there and performed great concerts. They say some would check themselves in voluntarily just to be able to play with their counterparts. Amazing. You had all kinds of addicts from different backgrounds but for the most part it was like a club house. At least that’s what was shown of the hospital. “The Man with The Golden Arm” (Frank Sinatra), I have and will watch it again this week. It’s been a long time since I took it out of the case. I saw it when I was about 15 or 16 years old. It scared the hell out of me to see him go through withdrawal like he did but as I grew older I saw that it was reality. Lexington is mentioned by him in the movie.
I was at the Narco from 1951 to 1956 0n what was supposed to be a ten year stay. The first two years was really,really rough. Though I have to admit my remaining time spent was the best time of my life or so thought at the time. I have been on any and every kind of drug ever since, whatever I could get. Now that I am old and on my death bed I get it all presribed by a doctor again. I just wish all the years in between were easier and that I didnt spend so much fucking money throughout the years.
I grew up in Eastern KY during the 60’s (yep, survived that….but probably couldn’t today with the abundance of illegal drugs & related activity)….we always were warned and “threatened” to always walk the straight path…OR end up at NARCO…..yep, that’s what we called it in the 60’s….
Pat Carter, just got around to looking at this article again and note you would like to know more about Narco. If you google my name, you should be able to get in touch with me. This might motivate me to go to the attic and get those old boxes down. Should be interesting to see how my memory jives with the notes in those boxes. Might even find some papers we wrote on: Cocaine and Collusion or Return to the Opiates, or the psychological scale of opiate withdrawal. Interesting times.
I saw a documentary on this place and the Dr.’s used animals as well as humans for heroin experimentation and this stuff was as pure as it’s gonna get. At first the monkeys would stick their arms out of their cages when they saw the Dr.’s coming around with the syringes. Then the docs let the monkeys and the humans withdraw from this stuff COLD TURKEY and videoed this shit. After that the monkeys would go nuts when they saw the docs coming around again with the syringes–screaming and the docs had to pry the monkeys off the bars of their cages. The inmates knew what was happening when they heard the monkeys screaming and then all was quiet. The monkeys were the smartest ones in the joint. They didn’t want any part of the stuff. The humans, tho, could have left on good behavior time but chose to stay instead so they could go to the pharmancy and get the goods. Finally this all stopped when they tested results of syphillis with a number of black inmates and this information was leaked. The gov’t gave this country all of its’ drugs. Oh yea, it was all for the army and to make soldiers vicious. They cut this stuff so much now I don’t see how anyone could even get a habit. Don’t think that judges, politicians and all higher ups are not involved in having these drugs transported in and they won’t stop it because they make billions, not millions, of dollars in their pockets.