Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1911-04-23
SOFT DRINKS MAKE
 COCOAINE VICTIMS
Children as Young as Eight Years of Age Found to Have Acquired
 Drug Habit.

the May Hampton's Magazine points out the danger of cocaine in soft drinks. MT. Moffett shows the depths to which cocaine fieu.ls fall and de" clares that is the most dangerous drug used.
 Here ,s plain warning from Dr, L. F. Kebler, chief of the division of drugs in the Government Bureau of Chemistry: Attention is directed to the danger of soft drinks containing | caffeine, extract of kola nut and ex- tract of coca leaf, the active prln- l ciple of the two latter being cocaine" According to Dr. Kebler, scores Of | soft drinks, dangerously medicated, are sold at soda water fountains as | stimulating and refreshing summer drinks without the slightest intima- tion to purchase that their stimulating | and refreshing qualities come from cocaine, a drug that produces one of the worst habits known to the me lieal profession.
 We have seen," says Dr. Kebler, "hcW the opium habit may be acquir- ed by the use of various proprietary | or secret preparations (pain kil!ers), usually employed as domestic reme-, dies, and so the cocaine habit may be developed by the use of these much landed cOft drinkc D
 During a recent visit to Washing ton MT. Moffett says he talked with two heads of departments in the Bur- eau of Chemistry, both active in the Government prosecutions of drugged soda water sirups.
 There is no question: said one Of these authorities, 'that the presence of cocaine in soft drinks tends to create in the consumer. whether child or adult. predisposi;ion towards the cocaine habit.'' It is evident that the manufacturers of these soft drink slrups have only one motive for putting cocaine into them, that is to make them popular, to make them taste good, to make them sell better. And this popularity this pleasant taste end better sale come simply and solely because there is enough cocaine in these soft drinks to give something of the stimulating and exhilarating elect that cocaine always gives.
 Tt is not uncommon.' says Dr. kebler, ito find persons addicted to the use of medicated soft drinks. It is we'll know fact that many fac tory employees, stenographers, type writers and others subject to menta, | or nervous strain spend a part of their earnings for drinks of this character.
 Parents, as a rule, withhold te,, and | coffee from their children, bu-, hav- ing no knowledge of the presence of cocaine, caffeine or other deleter.ous in soft drinks, they unwitting- ly permit their children to be harmed by their use"
 AS an indication of the dange. of young people acquiring the co,aine habit, MT. Moffett quotes Frank M. 'Sommer. In an address at East Or ange, New Jersey, in which he de- scribed his Experiences as Chief cf Police of the county, he said that in his fight against cocaine sellers in Newark in 1907, when he arra,red more than one hundred dealers. he was appalled, by the spread of ,;.a cocaine habit among schooD ,ys. Many of them, he found, were con- firmed users of "coke.' Dealers sold it to them in quantities as sms,l as penny's worth.
 During my regime" he sail "I handled two hundred cases of yic- t1ms of cocaine, and among them were some children, and young as eight years of age."