The record-union., 1891-07-03
THE OPIUM HABIT.

Df. watson IN the journal or Nervous
and Mental Diseases declares that opium
inebriety is a disease, and that it should
be treated as such. In this habit there is
molecular change; a neurosis is pro-
duced, amounting to a necessity for the
continuation of the drug until prepara-
tory stage is passed, during which seda-
tive drugs are used and the system thor
oughly aroused, and the reflex sensibili-
ties anticipated by such medication as
will strengthen and tone up the paralyzed
functions. This is the way the doctor
puts it. But the simple understandable
fact for the layman is that one on whom
the opium habit has fastened, is no more
rational being, but is the victim of dis
ease that riots upon the mental faculties.
The patient should be treated, therefore,
as are other afflicted persons. It is a
serious mistake to suppose that true treat
ment is to compel sudden cessation of the
drug. That practice occasions unneces-
sary torture, and is a species of inhuman-
rapid withdrawal of the drug can be ac-
complished, however, without serious
diarrhea, and that terrible unrest that is
the agony of the opium eater.
The doctor is convinced that there
should be institutions for the treatment
of the disease. since those who have
made a special study Of the conditions
and know by observation what to expect
from the patient during treatment, are
best fitted to care for them. Such people
can only be made available for greatest
good in institutions. But it suggests it
self to us that to establish asylums for the
treatment of opium eatears, and at the
same time enable others to so wreck
themselves as to become public charges
IN such asylums, is the hight of unwis-
dom. 1t so happens that there is no
political demand for freedom to traffic in
opium. The drug is an outlaw by COM
mon consent. 1t ought, therefore, to be a
matter Of ease to crush out its sale. Even
II it were necessary to prohibit its sale by
apothecaries, and compel physicians to
secure it at official stations only, it ought
10 be stamped out. If we had no opium
here we should have no opium eaters, at
least but few, since only the rich could
procure the drug from distant parts.
1t is possible to utterly prohibit the
sale or giving away of the drug. 1t is
possible to forbid one to have it in pos
session in any form, except he or she is
a regularly accredited physician of a rep
utable school. OF course California at
present most feels the vicious effects of
the use Of the drug, because of the pres
ence iG our midst of the Chinese who Sc
cure the poison and retail it to customers,
despite the strictest vigilance of customs
officials. But opium eating and smoking
that are increasing with such frightful
rapidity, especially in California, can be
stopped, not entirely but nearly so, by a
greater exercise of the power of the State
over the dispensation of the drug. We
must come TO it some day. For the dis
ease is spreading with alarming rapidity.
and opium victims are becoming almost
as frequent public charges as are con-
firmed drunkards. But the great mass
of the opium users are not seen by the
public. They practice the vice in secret,
and only when they are poverty stricken
and careless do they drag their weary
steps upon the streets in search of joint
where for few cents their vice can be
4ndulged. The thousands in California
who are secretly drifting into the habit.
are preparing for US a class that will be-
come heavy public charge presently.
1t would be the purest economy for the
State to wage the war of prohibition
against the importation of the drug, by
forbidding its use in any form except by
physicians, and by them only under
strict surveillance. Those best informed
as to the facts are confident that the State
will presently be driven to such severity
of enforcement of law against the outlaw
opium.