Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-05-17
10 Stop Wicked Traffic That Makes Drug Fends of Children

drug. 1t is pitiful thing that the drug makes
stronger appeal to sickly or underfed chill.
dren than to those who are robust or we'll to
do The temporary feeling of we'll being that
Immediately follows its use seems particularly
delightful to these unfortunates, and they de.
sire an increased dose with an unuuenchable
craving
Herein Is sold to school children In the
same way that cocaine has been distributed
among them for some time. Dr. Wiley tells
OF the discoveries he made concerning the
traffic in Philadelphia. Cocaine is sold under
the name Of flake" or coke" to children at
recess time in the alleys about the schools
Vendors of cake and candy offer 1t to be shifted
through a small rubber tube. The happy
feeling" that follows results in the establish.
ment of the habit. Old colored men, osten.
sibly selling roots barks and herbs, conceal
the drug beneath their wares and sell It In
white envelopes or twisted dirty newspaper
packages
The deadly traffic appears to have spread
to most of the large cities of the country. A
newspaper Of Des Moines, Ia, gives a descriu-
ton OF six boys, all under eighteen wears OF
age, staggering about in "dopy glee" Thew
admitted they had been taking Coke" and one
Oh the boys Is quoted as saying, "A guy III
here sells 1t to us. He kin buy it at some drug
store He buys 1t for me- 1t comes like snow
ana we Just put 1t In cigarette papers and
snuffed it up our noses. Gee. but we are
happy"
The newspaper which publishes this incident
points out that Iowa has law forbiddine any
one to obtain cocaine except on a prescription.
but nevertheless it is widely circulated. 1t is
sold either by Illicit dealers or in the form of
patent u,b;a
takenly allows to be Sold
One channel through which such drug po,s
ons are disastrously distributed to the unwary
Is In the mailorder treatment for drug addic
ton. Time and time again 1t has been found
that men posing as doctors advertise to cure
the victims of this habit. and then send out
connections containing various amounts of the
drug the victims trying to give up 1t is
usually pretended that the amounts Of the
drugs present are gradually decreased but
rarely Is this true, and in any case there is
no control to keep the patient from taking
any amount of the cure" he may DESIRE thus
getting increasing amounts of the poison. Some
older children obtain heroin in this way. al
though they are less likely to resort to this
method than to succumb to the temptations
of the street peddlers of the poison.
HERON Is being used to replace cocaine
and morphine in cough cures and the like"
says DR.. Wiley, now that the public has been
OF the latter two. The Department of Agri-
culture recently issued a special warning
against this product, which is derivatve Of
morphine, and is If anything more dangerous
Five sudden deaths from heroin poisoning have
been reported during the past year in Phila-
dephia County. Any sudden or material in.
crease in the dose is likely to prove fatal One
druggist in Philadelphia. whose store is in an
undesirable section of the CITY, has been buy
ing heroin tablets in lots of $4,000. This shows
how the pernicous traffic in these habit-form.
ing drugs forces itself upon the community
through new channels fast as the old ones
are closed. The public Is warned that the
word .heroin' label should be regarded as
a danger signal"
The wretched victims of the habit become
known to those engaged in the traffic, and