South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-03-14
The Peril of
the Drug Habit
From habits That Handicap.
BY Charles Il. Towns


There is no normal adult who. expe-
riencing severe pain or sorrow or
fatigue and thoroughly appreciat-
ing the immediate action OF an cas-
lily accessible opiate, is not likely in
moment of least resistance to take
il.
Every one who has become ad-
dicted to a drug has started out with
small occasional doses. and no one
has expected TO fall a victim 10 the
habit: indeed, many have been to-
tally unaware that the medicine they
were taking contained any drug
whatever
Thus. the danger being one that
threatens us all, it is every mans
business to insist that the entire
handling and sale Of the drug be
under as careful supervision as pos
sible It is not going too far to say
that up TO the present time most
drug-takers have been unfairly
treated by society
Not Safcguarded.
They have not been properly safe
guarded from forming the habit or
properly helped to overcome it.
1t has been criminally easy for any
one TO acquire the drug habit. Few
physicians have recognized that it is
not safe for most persons to know
what will ease pain. When an OPT
ate is necessary, il should be given
only on prescription. and its pres
ence should then be thoroughly dis
guised.
A patient goes to a physician 10 be
cured; consequently. when his pain
disappears he naturally believes
that this is due TO the treatment he
has received. If the physician has
used morphine in a disguised form,
the patient naturally believes that
the cure was effected by some un-
known medicine; but if. on the other
hand. he has received morphine
knowingly, he realizes at once that
il is this drug which is responsible
for easing pain.
If he has received it hypoder-
mically. the idea is created in his
mind that a hypOdermic is a neces-
sary part of the treatment Thus il
is clear. that the physician who uses
his syringe without extreme urgency
is greatly To be censured, for the
patient who has once seen his pain
blunted by the use of a hypodermic
eagerly resorts TO this means when
the pain returns.
Conservative practitioners are
keenly aware Of this responsibility,
and some go so far as never to carry
a hypodermic on their visits. though
daily observation shows that the
average doctor regards it as indis-
pensable. The conservative phv-
stefan employs only very small
quantity of morphine in any form
One of the busiest and most sue
cessful doctors Of my acquaintance
has used as little as half grain
year. and another told me he mad
never gone beyond two grains.
Both of these men know very well
that only q small percentage Of
drug-takers have begun the practice
in consequence of a serious ailment
and that even this small percentage
might have been decreased by prop
er medical treatment directed at the
cause rather than at its symptom.
pain.
An opiate. of course, never re-
moves the cause Of any physical
trouble. but merely blunts the pain
due TO it; and it does this by tying
up the functions of the body. 1t is
perhaps a conservative estimate that
only ten per cent of the entire drug
consumption in this country is ap-
piled TO the purpose of bunting in
chrable pain.
Opates Rarely Needed.
Thus 90 per cent of the opiates
used are strictly speaking. unnec-
essary. In the innumerable cases
that have come under my observa-
ton 10 per cent Of the habitual
users became such without reason
able excuse. Beginning with small
occasional doses. they realized with
in a few weeks that they had lost
self-control and could not discon-
tinue the use of the drug.
A very common source of this
habit lies in the continued admins
tration Of an opiate in regular medi-
cal treatment without the patients
knowledge or consent. or in the per
sistent use of a patent medicine. or
of headache or catarrh powder that
contains such a drug.
The man who takes an opiate con
sciously or unconsciously. and re-
ceives from it a soothing or stimu-
lating or pleasant effect, naturally
turns 10 it again in case of the same
need. The time soon arrives when
the pleasurahle part Of the Effect
If 1t was ever present-ceases to be
obtained; and in order 20 get the
soothing or stimulating effect the
dose must be constantly increased
as tolerance increases.
With those who take a drug to
blunt a pain which can be removed
in no other way, it is fulfilling its
legitimate and supreme mission and
admits of no substitute.
Where it was ever physically
necessary. and that necessity still
continues, an opiate would seem in
evitable. But the percentage Of such
sufferers. as I have said. is small
The rest are impelled simply by
craving - that intolerable craving
which arises from deprivation OF the
drug
TOLEDO GRAIN.