Curb Heroin In Plants (C.H.I.P.): Revisiting a Mid-1970s Intervention Into Workplace Heroin Addiction Created and Led by Detroit Autoworkers.

Abstract

This article analyzes archival records to revisit Curb Heroin In Plants (C.H.I.P.), a public health intervention focusing on drug dependence that was created and led by Detroit, Michigan, autoworkers during the mid-1970s. Responding to widespread heroin use in Detroit auto plants, C.H.I.P. combined methadone maintenance with counseling on and off the job to treat heroin dependence while supporting autoworkers in continuing in employment and family life. Although C.H.I.P. ultimately failed, it was a promising attempt to transcend medical/punitive approaches and treat those with substance use disorder in a nonstigmatizing way, with attention to the workplace dimensions of their disorder and recovery. I argue that revisiting C.H.I.P. speaks to current public health debates about the intersection between the workplace and harmful drug use and how to create effective interventions and policies that are mindful of this intersection. For historians, C.H.I.P. is a valuable example of the crucial role of workplace actors in the early war on drugs and of an early methadone program that was not strongly concerned with crime reduction but incorporated social externalities (specifically job performance) to measure success.