ABSTRACT
Middle-class people pay their bills on time or have health insurance, which does it for them. They trust the doctor to do what is best for them. People who do not measure up to middle-class standards pose a problem for organized medicine. Many merely live with their symptoms, doctor themselves with home remedies or narcotize themselves to relieve their pain. The only major organization that can reach the new population is the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic. But today, the first privately operated facility in America to employ clommunity volunteers in providing free and nonpunitive treatment of adolescent drug and health difficulties has serious problems of its own. Although always a confused and crisis-oriented center, the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic had become the national symbol of a new and successful approach in reaching a deviant population of alienated adolescents.
