Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-14
SLAVES TOA FATALHABIT
SAVANNAHS OPIUM EATERS
AND MORPHINE DRINKERS.

SAVANNAHS OPIUM EATERS
AND MORPHINE DRINKERS.
Startling Revelations of the Terrible
Vice-WhRt the Druggists Say About
the Sale of Opiates-Who Their Gus
toners are-Women the Chief Victims.
A MORNING NEWS reporter happened
into drug store yesterday when a rather
well dressed white woman entered and
purchased quantity of morphine. After
she had passed out he asked the clerk if
there was much Of the drug sold in the
city when the latter remarked:
"We have but few customers like that.
This woman used to eat opium in small
quantities, but when she had become ac-
qualnted with the properties of morphine
she took to il habitually instead of opium.
Sometimes she purchases So cents worth
at time, and at other times 10 cents
worth. You probably noticed that she
bought the smaller amount, about five
grains, Just now, but the chances are she
will return tomorrow for another dose.
1t IS a terrible habit, but if you refuse to
sell 1t, your customers will 20 else
where"
SIS not that a pretty good doze for one
person to takesr
Yes, for anyone who is not habituated
~ AAS use nave hAUWu NcTsOU6 WHO
! would take as much as thirty grains in
twenty-four hours, but we have no such
customers nowadays"
''Do you sell the opium gum!"
THE CHINESE CUSTOM.
"There are a few persons who chew the
gum, but the largest purchasers are the
Chinese you see about town. They don't
come in here often, but about two weeks
ago one OF them came in and bought
quarter of a pound"
"What do you suppose he did with tips
why, smoked it, of course. He has a
way OF making it into an extract and
then drying it, when he mixes it with to-
bacco and takes smoke. A quarter of
pound Of the drug used in that way will
keep Chinaman contented about a
week"
Chow many regular customers for NOR
phine do you haveT'
Three or four; but we have had as
many as six who came in every two or
| three days for a small quantity"
us as much sold this year as lastg
"The amount is about the same"
DRINKING cHLoRAL.
What is your experience as to the sale
! Of chlOraI!1
.'Ihree or four years ago there was quite
| a demand for it, but it seems to have died
| out, and we sell comparatively little of
1t, or OF bromide of potassium either.''
The reporter pursued his investigations,
ana called, during the afternoon, upon
over dozen druggists, only one Of whom
said that ne had no regular customer for
| oplates. "As soon as / find out that a
customer is in the habit of using
| opium, said he, 81 refuse to
| sell it. a few years ago
/ was keeping store in the centre of
| the city, where | had a customer who
every day or two would buy % cents
| worth Of morphine.
CONFIRMED CASE.
81 knew him so well, and had so often
attempted to discourage him from using
| 1t, but without success, that / finally de-
cided to accommodate him whenever he
called. He would spend the last cent he
mad for the drug. One night he entered
| the store looking nervous and in distress.
L gave him his regular allowance in
small bottle which he brought for the
purpose. He was in the habit of
| paying promptly, but somehow, on this
| occasion, l felt that he didn't have the
money. AS 1 passed him the bottle he
said to me: Now put me up
some blue mass pills. AS /
turned to get the pills, he quickly
left the store. / followed and finally over
TOOK him. As did SO, / asked: What
do you mean by running off like thatY
LIZ ANpAAEus uluH-I nave the money 10
pay, and 1 couldn't live if L didn't have
the morphine"
PHYSICIANS CAREFUL IN PRESCRIBING
OPIATES.
Another druggist said: 81 suppose /
have about six or seven regular custom
eTs for morphine in and out of the
city. | think the sale of the
drug has decreased over one-half
during the past three or four years. am
not in the habit Of encouraging people to
h5uy opiates. Very little choral and bro
mide of potassium is used now, owing
principally to the fact that physicians are
not so free in prescribing it as they were
three or four years ago."
81 do not know of anyone in the more
reputable classes who have been addicted
to the habit" said a leading wholesale
and retail druggist. 81 notice that those
who habitually use morphine for its
purely sensuous effects belong principally
to the poorer class"
THE VICTIMS OF THE DRUG.
care they whites or bIacksgv
''The majority are white and are
women. The hypodermIe use Of morphine
has increased at an astonishing rate dur
ing the past year or two. 1t is dreadful
to think of. cannot give you the num-
Der who use the drug in that way for they
sometimes purchase it here and some
times at other stores, hence it is impossi-
bic to say how much we sell to be used in
that way"
"How about the sales of opiates in the
| countryr
MORPHINE IN THE COUNTRY.
''The sale of morphine has increased at
an alarming rate in the country districts
and especially through Florida. We sell
/ too large amount of opium on orders
! from the country, though morphine seems
! to be superseding the other forms Of the
/ drug in those localities.'
| Another well known druggist said: "It
| il a mistake to suppose that morphine is
| taken to produce intoxication, and yet its
| habitual use proves it to be worse enemy
! to man than liquor. You ask why? The
/ quantity must be gradually increased;
/ for those who use 1t find
| their minds less active and their
| sensibilities so dulled that an additional
| quantity must be employed to sOOthe pain
| and Danish melancholy. A hypOdermic
| injection Of one-sixth or one-eigth of a
grain transforms a person who was de-
| jected and worn out into a man with
bright eyes and no pain or nervous
ness. But when he finds that he must
resort to repeated doses and
puncture his body here and there
with the hypodermic needle, he gets tired
/ of employing the drug in that way and
begins to drink it, mixing the powder in
water. ! know some who viii toss the
clear powder out of the paper
into their mouths. 1t is
bitter dose to those who are not accus-
toned to it, and if a person should CON-
mence by taking one-eighth of a rain he
would be in great danger. Think of those
who can take from five to twenty-five
grains every thirty hours. They cannot
stop its use suddenly without suffering
Indescribable misery. The habit has to
be broken by taking a less quantity day
after day for weeks and sometimes
months.n
LAUDANUM DRINKERS.
"Do many purchase laudanum to
/ drink?'
"Every now and then a laudanum
drinker comes in. but there are not many
/ compared to what we used to see. Not
| long ago one of my clerks was called by
/ a physician whom he knew to give him
some laudanum. The clerk told him to
| help himself. The physician went be-
/ hind the counter. poured out two fluid