Valdez daily prospector., 1913-06-25
Morphine and Cocaine Habits.

l Examination of the laws which
 control the sale of opium and CO.,
 caine in the several states show
 that there is most extraordinary
 lack of uniformity. In many
 states anti-narcotic laws are so
 Comprehensive that were an at
 tempt made to enforce the law
 literally it would result in the fine or Imprisonment of practically all
 the retail druggists. On the oth- which the exceptions and provis-
 jos to the law are so numerous as practically to nullify all efforts to control the traffic in narcotic ! drugs.
 Although in most of the states here is some legislation which
 aims to abolish the evil, it is all of comparatively recent date, and
 has not kept ipace with the in crease in drug addiction. Lack of
 federal control resulting in var
 ious conflicting state laws, or
 more properly speaking in giving
 rise to such a diversity of laws
 that stringency in one state can
 be overcome by ordering by mail
 from another state who're the
 laws are less stringent, is un-
 doubtedly the chief reason why our country compares so unfavor-
 ably with European countries in
 respect to the prevalence of mor-
 phine addiction.
 Since 1860, when the various forms of opium were separately
 enumerated in the tariff schedule,
 there has been an increase of 351
 per cent in the importation and
 consumption of all forms of Op-
 ium, as against an increase of l33
 per cent in the population. In
 the United States during the last
 ten years there has been an an- nual importation and consump- tion of over 100000 pounds. Au- stria- Hungary, with population
 of a little less than half that of
 ours, consumes annually less
 than 1-lOOth this amount of op-
 ium. Germany, with 60,O00,000 inhabitants, consumes only about 17,O0O pounds annually, while in Italy, with B, ,0OO,O0O, there is an annual consumption of only about 5000 pounds. The appalling dis crepancy consists in the fact that the most reliable authorities are agreed that one-eighth the amount of opium imported into the United States would amply suffice' f. the legitimate medical } needs of our people. This toun- try manufactures into morphine fully 30O,00O pounds of the an- nual importation, and it is esti- mated that 80 per cent of the morphine thus made is used by victims of the habit.
 When we consider cocaine, the situation is no less alarming. Roller first introduced this drug to the medical profession in lSSI. Thirteen years later was enacted the first legislation in the Unit ed States which StrONe to prevent the indiScriminate sale of the drug. In 1897 Illinois passed a law which made it unlawful to give OF sell any cocaine OF prep aration containing cocaine in any form, except on preScrlpt ion of a physician or dentist. The i'm icabiIity of all the legisla- tiOn since that time is evidenced by the fact that although cocaine
 is a drug which is utterly useless
 except in the hands of the phySi- elan or dentist, and should neV- CT be prescribed for continuous use under any circumstances ev- en by them, there has nevcrthe-
 less been such steady increase in it's use that it is now reliably
 estimated that it's illegitimate use alone exceeds i5O,OO0 ounces ev-
 cry year.
 X consideration of the evils at
 endant on the use of morphine
 and cocaine alone, says the Jour- nal of the American Medical As
 sociatiOn, should tend to convince
 the most ardent advocate of
 states rights that legislation reg
 ulating the sale of all dangerous
 habit forming narcotics should be
 national in scope and absolutely
 uniform throughout the country. In matters which affect inc health