Oral history interview with Willis Butler, 1978

Biographical Note

Willis P. Butler was born on January 24, 1888 in Gibsland, Louisiana. He earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt, and completed post graduate studies at both Columbia and Cornell University. He worked as a pathologist at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He opened a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana in May 1919 where he treated narcotic addicts, primarily morphine addicts. The clinic closed in February of 1923. Butler served as the Caddo Parish coroner for a total of fifty-six non-consecutive years. He is the author of "Will Somebody Call the Coroner?" Willis Butler was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Willis P. Butler discusses how he treated narcotic addicts at his clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana. He describes how he detoxed healthy patients, but maintained terminally ill or incurable patients on a steady dose of morphine. He discusses how the clinic aimed to serve residents of Shreveport only, and practices through which clinic staff verified that patients were residents. He discusses how each patient underwent a background check, which also verified their place of residence and employment. He explains how many patients suffered from underlying conditions such as asthma, tuberculosis, rheumatism, and most prominently, venereal disease, and how the clinic treated these conditions in addition to the patients' narcotic addictions. He speculates about the etiology of the drug addiction cases. Butler recalls the strong opposition to his work at the clinic that he received from other doctors in the field. He discusses his clinic being investigated, and being ordered to close

Subjects

• Butler, Willis P.--Interviews.
• Courtwright, David T., 1952- interviewer.
• Drug abuse--Treatment--Louisiana--Shreveport.
• Drug abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States.
• Drug addicts--United States.
• Drug control--United States--History--20th century.
• Drugs--Prescribing.
• Interviews.
• Morphine abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Oral histories (literary works)

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright