The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-06-14
POLICE HUNT
 DRUG EVIL
Join Cocaine Crusaders to
 Demand Tariff Check.
Congress Gan Shield Ameri- can Homes by High Duty Doctors Urge This Pro- lection.

New York, June 14.-For the first time in it's history the police depart
 ment of this city has to-day organized
 and begun a special crusade to stamp caine habit, which is now recognized to be one of the most serious sources
 of vice and crime throughout the coun- try. Every effort is being made to enforce the new state law against the
 sale of excessive quantities of this drug for the uses of the "dOpe f1end
 rather than the doctor. Fully 75 per
 cent. of the cocaine that passes
 through this city, the police admit, finds it's way to the victims of the deadly drug through an underground
 system of traffic which draws princi-
 pally from foreign sources.
 With no duty upon cocoa leaves,
 from which illicit purveyors extract a rough form of cocaine for their drug crazed customers, and only low tar if imposed upon the quantities Of the drug that are shipped here for secret
 distribution throughout the country, it is recognized that the chances for con- trolling the spreading cocaine curse
 are to-day very slim, even under the most strict state laws and police sur
 veiilance. Urging the recent recom-
 mendation of the American Health League for "a prohibitory tariff. in terna1 revenue tax and other means which will restrict the use of cocaine, | its substitutes and derivatives, to med | ical purposes members of the medi- l cal profession, welfare workers, cler- gymen and the leading drug houses safeguard every community in the
 country by thus shutting off this chief | source of the illegal supply of the nox- | iOuS drug. Though restrictive laws can be and are being successfully en- | forced by compelling the local manu- lecturers and wholesalers to keep re- cords of their cocaine sales, it has been proven, interruptions retailers to | &r@ | sell excessive quantities are perfect ly free to obtain a limitless and un- traceable supply from abroad.
 | More cocaine is sold to drug vic
 tins from one of tk cir supply stations | in a single night than an ordinary | drug store could sell for medicinal purposes in a year, the police de- clare. Medical men who are inter to give the homes of this country I this high tariff protection from the | ravages of the drug assert that the comparatively small supply of cocaine
 necessary for professional purpose | will still be readily available for their uses. With a tariff of $1.50 an ounce | put upon the foreign cocaine sup ply and duty of five cents on each pounds of cocoa leaves it is proposed to decisively ch eek the cocaine plague and place it firmly under govern
 ment control by an internal revenue tax. No power but that of the people can now induce the law makers at Washington to include in the A1drich- Payne bill this necessary clause for the protection of every American
 family. the leaders in this movement
 declared today. If every philanthropy ic medical and charitable organiza- ton throughout the land will >recom-
 mend to its members an immediate ap-
 peal to Senator Lodge, who is pre- senting this matter, or to their re- presentatives in congress, it is be- lieved these efforts to combat the curse of cocaine may succeed.