The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-10
OPIUM EATING IN THE UNITED
STATES.

| From Deacon Richard Smiths Cincinnati Gazette.
Opium eaters are found among all classes.
Clergyman and lawyers whose brains are
overtaxed are often led to adopt the fatal
assistance of this drug, and some of the
finest flights at the bar are in no small de-
gree due to its use. Many Of the hack
writer's who manufacture the sensation
stories for the cheap newspaper press work
up to the necessary excitement by eating
opium.
A large number of students at our colleges
are opium eaters. This follows as a matter
of course the free use Of tobacco. If the eX
citement of the latter be a delight how
much greater pleasure must there be in the
more subtle and refined excitement of
opium, and hence there are many talented
young collegians who dream away their
time, and when they attend recitations
(Which is seldom) make free use of the
pony"
Large numbers of nervous ladies in high
station use opium to give new life to their
etfete and exhausted frames; perhaps the
largest prOpOrtlOnate consumption is among
this class. They prepare for the enjoyments
OF party, or a ball. by the use of this slim
illus, and when it has brought the system TO
its acme, they shine with unusual brilliancy.
The use of stimulants as preparation for
social enjoyments is prodigous, and in
large party perhaps one-half are keyed up
by opium OF Bourbon to a proper state of
felicity. The reason why opium is becoming
more popular is because its devotee need not
incur the opprobium inseparable from the
drunkard.
He need carry no bottle with him, and
his breath will not smell of liquor. His
stock can be put in his vest pocket, and can
be used imperceptibly to the world. Hav-
ing these advantages over fire water, we do
not WONDER at the increase Of the former,
and the only reason why it does not become
almost universal as a substitute for alcO-
hOlic drinks Is simply because they are So
cial, while opium is not
The result of this general use of opium is
now beginning to show itself through the
country. The question now is, how shall
the evil be arresteds Among other means
we have the advertisements Of quacks, who
offer remedy for the shattered cOnstitu-
tions and the half lunatic intellects which
are the result of this habit, but being
quacks, they only suggest the evil without
showing way of escaping it. Instead OF
asylums tor cure, we need to check the evil
in it's inception, and its danger should be
clearly published. Let every one who may
be tempted to adopt the assistance or the
facinatiOn Of this pernicious drug learn that
its use can only result in intellectual and
physical ruin.
1t appears from the Custom House returns
that the amount Of opium imported into this
country (reaching now nearly $50; 900 pounds
annually is ten times more than it was
thirty years ago, and that, in the opinion of
the druggists aDi physicians. not more than
one third is used for medical purposes. In
reply to qestions sent to druggists through
out the State, it was found that they sold,
without any prescription, large quantities
Of opium, morphine and laudanum, to indi-
viduals who are in the habit of using it for
its stimulating effect
1t is used fully as extensively in the coun
try as in the city; women are more addicted
to the habit than men, and this species of in
temperance prevails more among the higher
and better educated classes than among the
poor and ignorant. 1t is singular fact that
amid the temperance reform this perniciOus
habit should be revealed DIS an evil worse
in some respects than iEtoxication from
alcohol.