The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-08-19
COCAINE SELLERS
MUST BE MADE QUIT THE AW-
FUL BUSINESS Or 1T WILL

Bring Untold Trouble on the People
of the South by Bebauching the
Colored People.
The cocaine habit bids fair, If al
lowed to continue, to solve the race
problem in the South by eventually
killing off the negroes. We agree
with The State that while the
alarming prevalence Of the cocaine
habit among the negroes has been
widely advertised, it is doubtful II
Southerners yet realize its terrible
significance. Every day the menace
grows larger" The State says:
"a case in point has just been
| demonstrated in Savannah, where
nineteen people, two Of them white
| physicians, members of the Georgia
Medical society and one an ex-coro-
ner, have been arrested charged with
selling the drug. AS is well known,
probably the majority of those who
sell noses Of cocaine to the ne
groes for sums varying from 10 to
so cents are themselves brothers-in-
black, but there is little question
that throughout the South there are
plenty of drug stores where cocaine
can be easily bought, and numbers
of men with licenses to practice med
icine who will sell prescriptions for
cocaine and other drugs. One of
the physicians arreyted in Savannah,
DR.. w. w. Lee, made this statement
to reporter:
'I have done nothing but what l
thought I ought to do. l have writ
ten these prescriptions in the inter-
est of humanity. when these suffer-
ing people would come to me and
beg to give them relief. have new
er written a prescription for any pa
tient except those already addicted
to the habit and have lost money on
the transactions. I have consulted
an attorney and have looked up the
law on the question and do not think
have violated it.
"The witnesses against these ply
sicians testified that prescriptions
could be bought from them for 25
cents each, and the drug stores
charge for filling them were so cents.
The detective who investigated the
cases found that in a period of five
weeks DR.. Lee had issued no less
| than three hundred and eighteen
prescriptions for cocaine, most of
which read for thirty, forty, and
sixty grains. The city health officer
of Savannah testified that he con-
sidered one-eighth Of grain suffic-
lent for a dose, but the witness
against the physicians testified if q
dope user was on strong as much
as IS grains could be used in two
or three days, and sometimes in one
day.
GAS every one who has made any
study of the negro cocaine hend
knows, the confirmed dope" will
go to any extreme to obtain the
drug-its hold is fully as strong as
morphine or any other Of the mar
cotics. One negro in Savannah sent
her shoes to the pawn shop, another
stole a neighbor's bedquilt, third
stole S1.00 from the family she
| washed for, etc. One woman, asked
as to the effect Of the drug, said:
"'It makes you feel so good-like
you wanted to fly. And it takes
away the tired feeling that comes
from hard work, and wakes per-
son up The effect of nose of it
lasts me over an hour. When
take it 1 always go home. Then
cont mind my work. TIE effect OF
It is not like wntskey
"EaT. sue is t.D, orarily banished
by stimulation of the nerve centers,
but the after-effect is depressing and
this of course calls for use of the
drug again and again.
Excepting the two white men ar
rested in Savannah, all the defend
ants are negroes, including one ply
sican. OF these the police justice
before whom the cases were tried,
bound over to the City Court, high
er tribunal, only the physicians,
claiming that it was chiefly through
them that the drug was circulated.
The drug stores, he held were not
to blame as they did nothing more
than fill the prescriptions. This
point is vel! taken. 1t is at these
physicians, who unfortunately are
located in many other communities
than in Savannah, that the blow
must be aimed.
"Of coure in some cases proof is
very difficult to obtain, but it can
got through determined effort, and
with the material once in hand, the
courts seem to be the next step.
Surely the medical associations in
which such suspected men hold
membership would do something to-
ward depriving them of their licenses
to practice
Guessed About Right.
On last Saturday we published
tha foIIowing. "The Times and