The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-10-03
THE DRUG FIEND.
There Is Danger Tint He VIII he.
come as Common as the slave of
Intoxicating Drink

The sight of a drunkard reeling
and staggering in the streets has be-
come almost so common that in the
hearts of many it neither eXcites
curiosity nor pity. If the already
vast army of drug fiends should con-
tinue to increase with the rapdity
with which it has increased during
the last few years, it will be only a
question of time when the morphine,
opium and cocaine devotees will out
number by far the present number
of drunkards. There is no one, ex-
cept those who have taken the pains
to study this subject carefully. who
has any idea of the appalling extent
to which these drugs are already be-
ing used. 1t has been estimated that
in one of our largest American cities
there are 10000 abicct slaves of the
morphine habit. An eminent eastern
medical authority. who has had per-
haps better opportunity tic study this
subject than any living physician,
estimates that ten per cent. of ply.
sicians are themselves more or less
addicted to some of these habit
forming drugs. The very fact that
each issue of some of our popular
magazines contains nearly a dozen
advertisements of various remedies
or institutions purporting to cure
drug habits, is alone a strong indi.
cation that there are plenty of vic
Tins to patronize the same. Such
condition cannot exist without Ger.
tain definite causes.
As the first cause of this alarming
tendency. may be mentioned the high
tension under which modern society
is existing, and the failure of indi.
viduals to properly support such
pressure by using the simple. natur.
al and nutritious dietary of our fore
fathers.
Second, the modern invalid either
refuses or is unable to endure pain.
no matter how persistently he has
sown for the same. He has no pa
thence to await the slower process
of relieving the pain by rational and
natural methods. He Graves and de-
mands immediate relief, well know.
ing that the physician is carrying
about with him alternative drugs. and
that if he is unwilling to promptly
administer them some other physi.
clan will be secured who will do so.
Worst of all, the patient soon discov.
ers some method whereby the drug
can be secured without the expense
of consulting the physician at all,
and proceeds to an unwise self-ad-
ministration of the dangerous ar
ticle.
.'here are, undoubtedly. a large
class of individuals who have inher-
tied such a neurotic temperament
that they acquire this habit with
readiness that is certainly surpris-
ing, and yet these are scientifically the
class of individuals in whom a slight
cold, an attack of the "grippe.' or
even some ordinary indiscretion in
diet or some unusual exposure will
develop speedily what seems to be
an unbearable pain and other nerv-
Gus symptoms, which the delusive in
fuence of morphine can apparently
spirit away in very satisfactory
manner. At the same time, the pa
tient little realizes that each dose
of this drug leaves the nervous sys-
tenn a little more sensitive and sus-
ceptihle to pain, and thus he paves
for himself the way to living death,
a slavery which only those who have
experienced can properly describe
David Paulson, NJ. d., in Union Sig
nal.