The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-03-29
POLICE SEEEND
OF DOPE CURSE
For First Time New York
Officials Dare Predict
Eventual Victory.
DRUGS MORE EXPENSIVE
Harrison Federal and Boylan State
Law Aid Efforts to Eradi-
cate Evil.
DRUGS MORE EXPENSIVE

For the first time since beginning their
war on the dope" evil, a score Of years
ago. when the problem first became
acute. police department officials within
the past week have dared predict event.
ual victory.
A systematic, energetic police earn
paiSn. the effectiveness of two new laws
and the enlightened attitude OF hardened
drug users themselves OF late are the
three causes which make experienced po-
lice officers predict that even in face OF
their estimate OF $4,000 drug users in thu
greater city. the evil may yet Be stamped
out.
The laws are the Harrison Federal law
and the Boylan State law. The former,
which went into effect the first of this
month. makes the obtaining OF habit
forming drugs without a prescription al
most impossible. Already twenty-five
druggists have been charged with vio-
lations. and both the police and the drug
fends assert that the single conviction
druggists promptly abandoning the Illicit
traffic.
! The Boylan law. besides making the
possession. sale or Legitimate use of
habit-furming drugs feloniOus. provides
that confirmed drug users be segregated
in a city. co,Rlty or State institution
mai inS special provision for their cure.
BcyIan Law as Weapon.
! Active work Of special detective squads
| in all boroughs with the Boylan law as
| n weapon have nearly driven drug pur-
| veyors OF the streets. the police main
| tam. 4 total of 1850 arrests were made
| in drug cases last year. and many dope
fiends interviewed in city institutions la
mcntcd that the street peddlers are no
! longer to be found.
/ eIpnmepf than their verbal lCStl-
mony. that they can no longer buy CO.
! cainc. morphine. hcroin and other habit
| forming narcotics. is the fact that hun
! drcds of victims, taking advantage OF the
Boylan Law. have appeared In magis-
trates' courts all over the city and volun-
tarily had themselves committed for
thirty days to city institution for
treatment.
Tortured by the craving they can't
satisfy. the habitues beg and plead t"
be locked up where their sufferinss will
be allCviItcd.
Another striking commentary on the
difficulty in obtaining drugs is the num-
Der of cases of Young persons brought
into court by their parents and COM
mitted under the BOylan law. In many
Of these cases the parents have not
known Of the habit until the supply OF
thu" drug Was cut off.
one of the most experienced drug fight
crs in tho department, estimates the
number OF users in the greater city at
anywhere from $4,000 to 10000. He bases
his estimate upon those of various So
cieties and agencies Interested in allevi-
dtinc the evil and upon percentage
basis of the number of known crooks.
Gangstcrs and msdemeanants in the
greater city. believed TO be drug users,
based upon statistics.
Every patrolman in the city has been
recently constituted a special Waterman
Of drug users and sellers. From this
nearly complete card index of every
known user and dealer is expected to
result before long.
DraRs More EyPcnsive.
Increasing expcnsivcncss OF all habit
drugs. except hcroin. have in the past
few wears made that drug the principal
one used among those classes with which
IN" police come in contact. Morphine
and cocaine have become expensive
that their users are usually of the
w"tlt hirr classes. who go to private in
situations for treatment when the habit
finally gets the better of them.
To the community. heroin is a less
dangerous drug than those OF former
years. since il has not the same effect
maniacal criminal. To the user. how
eyer. it is deadly. The habit destroys
TN" ability to work. Idleness brings on
p"nniiessness. Pennilessness means in
ability to buy the drug. The next step
IN tn" vicious circle is the commission Of
petty crime to get money to buy the
drug.
IT tho user is not caught directly a. a
drug user he il apprehended for the
r.,-fEV. ~t,k a,,,
Then he is promptly sent to an institu-
ton where he gets a months treatment
which enables him. If he wills. to stop
the use of the drug forever.
Drug Purveyors Scattered.
Right here the effectiveness of police
activity comes In, for in dissipslting the
gangs of drug purveyors they are MAX
ing it possible for the cured person to
20 back into an environment where he
is not beset with opportunity to re-
indulge at every corner Of his old haunts. ,
OF ls7 drug users all but nine OF whom !,
were heron fends. who have been con- |
fined in the Kings County Hospital since |
the Boylan law made their Incarceration |
possible last July. less than half a dozen |
discharged as cured have been recon- |
mittcd. Similar success is declared to |
have attended the efforts OF other city, |
county and State institutions.
reporter was permitted few days !
ago to visit the drug ward at Kings |
County Hospital in company with In |
spector Dillon and to question the in |
mates freely. At that time there were |
three women and twenty men confined !
there. OF these but three were morphine |
users. The males ranged in age from . |
boy OF IS to a man OF s., but all Of them
nearly all drug users as the police hnd
them. in fact-average from Is to 20 |
years.
The men with whom the reporter
talked all had the dilated pupil and
fused cheeks so characteristic of the
heroin user All Of them had passed
the first three days Of drug
denial. which is their hardest period. The
hospitals system involves complete with
drawA Of drugs Immediately upon the
patients entrance. The habitue gets only
Observation-Disclosures stimu-
lants and ordinary alienation for the
aches. pains and nausea which manifest
when the drug is withdrawn.
Each of those examined professed his
Gladness at having been sent to the in
stitution. and each declared his entire !,
confidence in his own ability to refrain
from using the drug again.
They described variously the effects of |
the drug. though all agreed that after
long addiction herofn has no other prop
erty than that Of dissipating that sta &c
of bordering collapse they describe as a
ven and Of restoring them to an or.
binary normal. The habitues asserted!
the pleasurable stimulation to be obtained |,
from the drug passes away after q few
months use. Each told q tale of In
ability to work most OF them admitted |