Imperial Valley press., 1915-07-27
OF DOPE
WITHOUT SUPPLY

San Francisco, July PA federal
law has made the office of j. j. Scott,
collector of internal revenue, a confes-
sional.
/ The Harrison drugs act has made
/ doctors careful, druggists wary. The
way of the drug user has become hard,
for an internal revenue permit is neces-
sary these days in order to pet the
stuff or have it in ones possession.
Collector Scott is the court of last
resort. Into his ears during the past
months have been poured pitiful tales
by men and women of social standing
in this and other communities, whom
fate has led into the net of drug de-
votion.
A side phase of the case, much less
pitiful, is the application by certain
osteopaths, "drugless practitioners"
for permits. Osteopaths are not regis
tered by the state medical board as
"physicans" and the federal act eX-
pressly uses that term to denote in
dividuals who may be granted permits.
The osteopaths have been turned down.
The individual cases surpass in in
terest. They show the high places
into which the drug habit has made its
way Men and women of evident
breeding and high standing have been
among the supplicants before Scott.
They have told with fearsome detail
of how their mental and physical well
being has become dependent upon the
potions with which De Quincey in
dulged himself. And, like De Quincy,
many had their start in as harmless
an indisposition as neuralgia.
A woman had been i'll and in pain.
A doctor had injected morphine and
the drug eXerted its devilish influence
Thereafter it had become a necessity
The doctor now refused further pre-
scriptions. The druggist had become
heartless. Would Scott intervene?
A prominent local business man
(Scott withholds his name) had suf-
fered an accident. Twelve years ago
it was. Pain beyond human endur-
ance once had been assuaged with
drugs. The appetite remained. Twelve
years nightly potion had been taken.
The new statute cuts him off from the
only thing which stabilizes his men,
tality. Could Scott intervene?
From a country town came a let
ter. A woman, mother of three grown
daughters and possessed of a good
husband, was a victim of morphine
solution. An illness of long ago had
been the start of the habit. "They
saw me try once to do without it and
they do not wish to go through that
experience again." she wrote.
Helpless as the victims seem, Scott
is quite as helpless. He can give them
no aid. The fight must be made by
themselves.
A curious method of fighting the
drug was told by victim to Scott re-
Gently. He wanted just one permit,
for just one bottle more of morphine
solution. His cure would be complete
by the time it was consumed, he ex-
planned.
He had two bottles, one of the liquid
drug, the other of olive oil. At ire
start he took a small measure of the
drug and then diluted the remainder
with the olive oil. After each dose of
the more and more diluted drug he
would add a further measure of the
olive OIL But he was not yet cured
He needed one more bottle. 1t had
to be denied him.
"The revelations have been astonish-
ishing," Scott said today. 81 have
been the unwilling receptacle of lot
of fearful stories. 1t is hard to deny
them, but the new law will mean that
few new cases of drug mania will be
deVeloned