New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-15
DEADLY NEW DRUG
PLENTIFUL in N. Y.
Man Who Died in Street
Possibly a Victim of
Mexican MaraWana.

Marawana, a new drug from Mexico,
is supposed to have been the substi-
tute for cocaine that killed Charles
Hunt. in East 1Olst Street, Tuesday
night and sent his friend. Lawrence
Mcmahon, to Bellevue Hospital in a
critical condition.
The drug has been under investiga-
ton by the federal authorities for
more than fortnight, but thus far the
chemists have been able to tell little
about il except that it seems on analy-
sis to be derived from some plant AKIN
TO the poppy, from which opium and
its various derivatives are taken. The
description-dark brown-fts the de-
scription of the pills that Mcmahon
/ told the police an Italian had given
him and his friends as substitute Tor
/ the unprocurable cocaine.
! Marawana was first called 10 the at
tenton of Edwin NJ. Stanton, Of the
United States District Attorneys stat,
soon after the Harrison act placing
! the drug traffic under Federal superyi-
| sion went into effect.
New Drug Plentiful.
II was turned over to him by a
/ Secret Service man, who had obtained
small quantity from an Italian who
had declared large quantities of the
stuff were in New York.
This man was quoted as saying that
+ the drug was represented to be within
the law, and vet as powerful as any
. Of the poisons barred by the Harri-
son act. 1t was said TO be obtained
from a plant grown in the mountains
of Mexico.
Mr.. Stanton said yesterday that he
1 had not had a final report from the
/ chemist to whom his sample had been
submitted, and that as yet there was
/ nothing for which the pOssessors OF
/ the new dope" could be prosecuted.
From what | read about the drug
used by those unfortunate Harlem
fellows" he said, 81 am inclined to
think they may have had some Of this
ncw stuff. The description IS generally
/ tho same. and the fact that they said
il was supplied by an Italian. from
whom my know edge Of the stuff came
indirectly, fits in with that belief, as
does the fact that it worked so
J quickly. M.
the poppy, as has been suggested, or II
NAV be a combination of plants. Iha5
is what we are trying to find out. l.
may be merely a combination OF known
drugs mixed with a holder, 50 as 10
conceal the nature Of the active con-
stituents."
The procession of dope fends to
BELLEVUE and the Metropolitan Hospital
for treatment continued yesterday:
Some went voluntarily in the hope OF
obtaining relief from the cravings Tor
the cocaine and heroin; others went IN
the custody Of. relatives or the police.
Private hospitals caring for drug users
received many new patients, but most
of the victims are too poor to patrohlZe
these places, where fees run hlgh'
Finds Missing Son.
Isadore Liebenthal, eighteen years
old. of 2G3 East l0Ith Street, was one
Of the involuntary patients. lie has
beer9missiEg from his home for fort
night. Yesterday his father found HIM
in Third Avenue. and held him until
Patrolman O'Sullivan, of the lo4tn
Street station, came along and placed
him under arrest. He was glad to go
to Bellevue, ne said.
At the East SiXty-seventh Street sta
ton six men surrendered themselves
last night and asked to be committed
as drug fends They were booked as
Francis de Carlo. twenty-one, OF "a
West l25th Street; Lewis Sllco, forty,
of 3l4 West l69th Street; Robert
Haskins, thirty-one, and Robert Eann'
twenty-nine, both Of II West 18TH
Street. and Edward Boyce, twenty
eight. of 946 Brook Avenue, The Bronx.
One alleged dealer in coke" was ar
rested in Second Avenue. He was An
drew Poggi, of Baxter Street, and
/ Magistrate Corrigan held him in 81 ,OOO
for examination, pending analysis of
twenty packages of a white powder
/ found in his nossnssiOn.