Evening star., 1903-06-25
INCREASED OPIUM USE
Growth Of the Habit in This
I City.
A DRUGGISTS TALK
FEARFUL CRAVINGS OF THE CON-
FIRMED USER.
Majority of Victims From the Better
Glasses of Society-First Given
as a Medicine.

to Star reporter of the deaths of Sybil
Sanderson and Wanda de BoncZa In Paris
by the opium route. Il am no alarmlst, but
I speak plainly and truthfully when l say
that l believe 1t will be necessary for
Congress to take some rigid and heroic
measure to prevent the spread of this
sure tn mania, for l think 1t can rightly
be termed mania. Our people are drink
ing and shifting every and anything which
will give temporary relief to tired feeling
and shattered nerves-opium, laudanum.
strychnia, salol, tfncture ginger, valerian,
atropia, bromidia, chloroform, choral, CO.
caine, ether, paregOric and, In fact, every
drug which can be named, but. of course.
opium leading the list, save In some Of
the southern states, where cocaine smiling
has become so common that rich and poor
use 1t alike, and many cities and towns
have made stringent laws against it's SALE
The old-time habit of snuff shifting is in
creas1ng at an alarming rate, and any to-
bacconist, druggist or retail grocer will
tell you that pound of snuff is sold now
to where there was an ounce eighteen
months ago. Three out of every ten men
you meet on the streets are users of snuff
carrying with them their snuff boxes and
shifting the stuff at least once every hour.
A Serious Situation.
THAT the situation is serious cannot be
doubted, and in my business as prescrip-
ton druggist am in a position to see the
rapid advance the evil is making. AS I
stated opium leads the list, and by exam
ining the reports of foreign commerce of
the United States you will see that our i'm
ports Of the deadly drug increase with each
year. For ten months in 1901 we received
crude opium from other countries, sos, ,463
pounds, valued at $1,O97 S97, and for ten
months ending with April last we received
39l ,196 pounds, valued at $743,622 You Will
see that there was a decrease in the
amount of crude opium, but in that pre-
pared for smoking there was a large in
crease for the same periods. In 1901, 96,9O1
pounds, valued at $S03,042 and In 1903,
$780, ,20S pounds, valued at $1,1S2, ,216. 1t Is
easy to account for the falling off in the
imports Of the crude opium in the fact
that there are so many other drugs and
nostrums to take It's place, but there is
nothing which takes the place of opium in
liquid form and prepared for smoking;
there is no substitute which will give the
unfortunate opium fiend the same satisfac-
ton and relief; nothing which will touch
the right spot and do its work so well and
effectively All hesalcohol. whisky, drugs
and drops ever manufactured can't take the
place of opium with the confirmed user.
1T Is criminal for any druggist to refuse
the drug to one suffering for the lack of it.
for the user must have it or go mad; his
very existence is raging hell until the
craving Is SdtlSf10Q, anu uedtn Will T0Sull
If he or she IS not supplied. l have given
without cost many ounces to the poor devils
who come in here and beg for 1t, but in all
cases l have knowledge that they have
passed the dead line and cannot do without
it. 1t is to the new beginner that 1 refuse
either to sell or give, and have positively
declined to fill many prescriptions from
reputable physicians who have prescribed
the drug. / do not mean to censure the
physicians, but opium is prescribed in too
many cases where something else would
answer the purpose as well or better, and
would not run the risk of making opium
fiends of innocent and unsuspecting pa
tents. I am convinced that seven-tenths of
the users of opium were started on the
road by taking prescriptions given by ply
sicians who did MOTTO put 1t charitably-
stop to think what crime they were COM
mitting in giving the accursed stuff as n
medicine. The physician who says nothing
will answer the same purpose as opium
simply does not know what he Is talking
about and needs to read up little more
on his profession. l had rather give UP
my business than to give dose of opium
and Ike chances on its making an habtual
opium user of the person gave 1t to.
Use is Dangerous.
THE use OF opium and other narcotics
In practice Is dangerous, very, and l have
lost the trade OF one or two high-toned
physicians by being bold enough to assert
my belief and asking them to let up IN
their ruin-producing prescriptions. had
rather sacrifice my business than to have
the trade of men who are careless Of human
life and happiness. The hypodermic syringe
and morphine pills are doing their work
faster than the drink evil and regret to
say practicing physicians are largely re-
sponsible, for they are prescribed for al
most any and every Ill.
Naturally, the occasional use of simpler
drugs, pills, drops, snuff and other nerve-
IcIan -yarOd Od,rnn 14p x71,
use of opium but in these cases the I'M
fortunates have no one to blame but their
own foolish selves, and they deserve little
or no sympathy for having formed the
habit-a habit which not one in hundred
ever succeeds in breaking off. There Is
nothing under the sun as difficult to break
off from the opium habit, and there is
no slave more to be pitied, it making them
wrecks physically and mentally besides
making them liars, thieves and even
worse. The most miserable wretch on
earth is the opium fiend, and they will tell
you So for they are the most confding
creatures on earth. But once the habit
fastens Itself there Is no letting loose, and
opium they must and will have regardless
of consequences, and have met with many
fearful evidences OF total depravity on the
part of men and women who have come
here to get the drug. 1t was only last week
that a former well-known young man who
stood well socially and financially brought
me a small diamond ring and offered 1t as
pledge for an ounce of opium. I got him
to acknowledge that 1t was his wife's
gagement ring, and knew him so well
knew that the habit was so firmly rooted
that gave him an allowance of the stuff,
and he promised me to take the ring back
to his wife. His promise was broken, for
have since learned that he got second
supply of opium for the ring at another
drug store. Men and women come in here
with almost every, imaginable article to
pledge for opium, and in a number Of cases
I know that the article has either been
stolen from their homes or somewhere else.
could have a safe full Of valuables we e
/ disposed to do that kind of business. 1t
is after nightfall that the opium fend Is at
his worst, and then 1t Is that the druggist
and prescription clerk must be on his
guard, for an opium f1end is a dangerous
customer when refused the drug, especially
If he has gone few hours beyond his
period that is, the time for taking an
injection or a smoke. 1 have had them to
smash things right and left in this store.
Poor devils, they are not responsible, and
I have never yet had one of them arrested.
In Better Glasses Of Society.
while lam talking it might not be out
of place to say that I have every reason
for believing that the increase of the num-
ber Of opium users is coming from the
better classes of SOciety too THAT tired