The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1911-05-12
DANGfRSTO DEADLY COCAINE
Rapid Increase of the Most insidiOus Drug
tsbit-The Craving Usually Acquired by
Accident

opening of the six months harvest OF
the soda fountains. What will you
have?" asks the amiable clerk and
points to list of sirups, a row Of gayly
colored bottles and some large bowls on
the counter containing crushed straw
berries, sliced pineapple and other
tempting fruits. If you stick to the
fruit sirups and the fruit is really good,
no harm is done. On the contrary.
But if you turn to the bottled attrac-
tons or listen to the promise of their
much advertised qualities, then beware.
Here is 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 extract OF coca leaf, the
active principle OF the two latter being
cocaine"
According to DR.. Kebler, scores Of
soft drinks, dangerously medicated, are
sold at soda water fountains as stimu-
lating and refreshing summer drinks
without the slightest intimation to pur-
chasers that their stimulating and re-
freshing qualities come from cocaine, a
drug that produces one of the worst
habits known to the medical profession.
We have SEEM" said DR.. Kebler,
how the opium habit may be acquired
by the use OF various proprietary or Sc
cret preparations usually employed as
domestic remedies, and so the cocaine
habit may be developed by the use Of
these much lauded soft drinks
During a recent visit to Washington
l talked with two heads Of departments
in the bureau Of chemistry, both active
in government prosecutions of drugged
soda water sirups. There is no ques-
ton" said one of these authorities,
that the presence Of cocaine in soft
drinks tends to create in the consumer,
whether child or adult, predisposition
towards the cocaine habit"
1t is evident that the manufacturers
of these soft drink sirups 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 pleas
ant taste and better sale come simply
and solely because there is enough CO.
caine in these soft drinks to give some
thing of the stimulating and exhilarat-
ing effect that cocaine always gives.
It is not uncommon" says DR..
Kebler, TO find persons addicted to the
use of medicated soft drinks. 1t is a
we'll known fact that many factory en-
ployes, stenographers, typewriters and
others subject to mental or nervous
strain spend part Of their earnings for
drinks of this character. Parents, as a
rule, withhold tea and coffee from their
children; but, having knowledge of the
presence of cocaine, caffeine or other
deleterious agents in soft drinks, they
unwittingly permit their children to be
harmed by their use.'
Cocaine-what is it? The Standard
Dictionary tells US: Cocaine, white,
bitter, crystalline alkaloid contained in
coca leaves; used in medicine as a
local anesthetic." And again: Coca,
the dried leaves of a South American
shrub of the flax family, used in medi-
cine as tonic; chewed by the native
Indians as a nervine stimulant. There
10 ~ NOnACSLAOu DCbHCCn tlS wa
shrub and the cocoa palm tree that pro-
duces cocoa nuts.
An ounce containg 48O grains and a
grain of cocaine is a dose. From a
single source Of cocaine supply in New
York city 100000 doses of this dan
gerous drug were illegitimately dis
pensed every month.
How is the habit usually acquired7
By accident, like other drug habits.
Pm sorry to say that one Of these-er
accidents is the presence of cocaine
in catauh medicines" DR.. Podstata
proceeded to give me details in the
case Of one Of his patients, man of D.,
who became cocaine fend quite inno-
Gently by taking a widely advertised
catanh cure" that contained only a
small percentage OF cocaine, but, alas,
enough to establish the habit. The