The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-01-09
Dope Fiends Resort to Old Sub.
eterfuges and Concoct
'7- s1a STRANGE Lies.

ST. LOUIS, No., Jan. S.-Wnen ST.
Louis was being flooded with counter
felt five dollar bills several months
ago young man about "a years. old
walked into the office Of the United
States district attorney in the federal
building and told officials thai he
wanted to make a confession.
He said that he and former en-
grayer in the United States treasury
department at Washington We . iil-
ing in a houseboat near Carondo!ct;
that his companion had been engaged
In manufacturing the bogus banknotcs
and that he (the informant) mad been
circulating them throughout the c::y.
He had become conscience stricken.
he declared, and had decided TO Ie,l
the whole story and take his punish
ment.i His tale was thoroughly plaus.
ible and was told with wealth OF
detail that convinced his hearers that
he was telling the truth.
After the narrative was completed
the young mans face took ON q look
of agony. He clasped his .ilands %
his stomach and writhed as IL in great
pain. He explained that he was sub
feet to cramps and the officials had
him removed to city dispensar7, s':ll
apparently undergoing intense suffer-
ing. Physicians there administered
several injections Of morphine and the
natient ranidly recovered.
When the drug had thoroughly per-
meated his system the mans whole
demeanor changed. He seemed TO re
ecstatically happy. Then he made an
other confession more startling than
the first. He said that for six years
he had been morphine addict; that
since the stringent Harrison law had
gone into effect he had been unable TO
obtain a supply, and that the ca+ire
story he had told the federal officials
was a pure fabrication invented m a
lrst desperate effort to obtain "sho.'
Of that which his body crayed ~nh
such an intensity that all scr'iples
were swept aside.
Register as Physicians.
This is but one illustration Of the
lengths. to which drug addicts have
gone, or the lies they have told, tricks
they have attempted and subterfuges
they have planned to get their dope"
since the new drug law became eff
fective March /. They found to their
CONSERVATION that the law was rigid
" enforced from the day 1t was in
force, that 1t provided such severe
punishments that few druggists or
physicians had the temerity to exper-
iment as to whether or not 1t could
be made elastic. The supply was cut
of as suddenly as II the victims had
been placed on a desert island.
The Harrison law prohibits all per-
sons from selling or giving away habit
forming drugs without a physician's
prescription or under the direct in
struction OF physician. The penalty
for violation II a fine Of not more than
$4,000 or Imprisonment for not more
than five years or both. That doc
tors, dentists, druggists, veterinar-
ians or, others may obtain them the
statute provides that they shall reg
lister at the United States internal
revenue office, pay a small license fee
and obtain supply Of 100 blanks.
which when properly filled out estab-
lish their right to purchase morpa'uc,
cocaine, heroin or any Of their 'lerl';i-
tiyes for use in their business.
Upon this clause in the statute per-
sons addicted to the use OF narcotics
seized hungrily as a possible means Ct
circumyentlng 1t. Vance ]. Riggs, as
sistant United States district nttor-
ney, to whom was assigned the IN
vestigatlon and prosecution Of cases
falling under the Harrison act, causht