Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1916-02-16
Many London Society Folk Re-
ported Addicted to Pipe and
Other Drug Habits.
TRAFFIC is HARD TO CHECK
Ring, Whose Operations Are World
Wide, Unchecked by Law-Use
Moving-Picture Film Tins to
Smuggle into the Unit
ed States.

London.-A craze of opium smoking
and the extensive use of other drugs,
including cocaine, heroin and ether,
has recently been taken up by London
women of means and many in society
and actresses as well.
Eagerness to alleviate the terrible
depression caused by the war has led
many cultured women to seek the con-
ISOLATION Of drugs, and this desire has
been cultivated and exploited by a
ring composed largely of Americans,
who maintain opium dens on luXuri-
Gus scale in the West end.
The activities of the ring are not
confined to England. 1t is a serious
business organization, worldwide in
it's ramifcations. Managed by half a
dozen principals it maintains estab-
lished agencies throughout the East,
particularly in China and India, and
also all over the United States, with
headquarters in New York. 1t is large
ly imported into New York by means
of personal smuggling. One of the
favorite methods of smuggling is to
conceal the opium in tins containing
moving picture films, which are not
likely to be opened or to be even
under suspicion. The films are shipped
to certain firms who also conduct film
trading agencies, but the drug scheme,
as may be imagined, is the hugely
profitable side of the venture These
opiumed films have been shipped in
large quantities to New York and up
to the present have escaped detection.
Traffic Hard to Check.
Another means employed is to have
the opium cooked in pellets ready for
use. Thousands of these pellets can be
and are carried in the dresses or cloth
ing of passengers to New York and
safely delivered to the headquarters
of the ring there.
The men. composing the ring have
extensive acquaintance, and it is not
exaggeration to say that during the
last few months scarcely steamship
has left this side for New York with
out one or more carriers of opium
aboard. Stranded Americans have fire.
quently been employed, as the differ
ence in price between opium here and
in America enables the ring to give
the carriers not only first-class pass
age, but also a good sum of money be-
sides. From what has been learned
the ring has had great luck with its
carriers" who have all got through
safely with the goods"
The authorities, who are aware of
the existence of the ring" have the
greatest difficulties in coping with the
situation, because opium smoking and
drug taking are not prohibited under
the English law. Opium and similar
drugs are not supposed to be sold in
England save through physicians
certificate and the seller must keep a
record of the sale and the name and
address of the purchaser, but these
difficulties have been surmounted by
means of tame" druggists and "re-
fable" wholesalers.
On the question of export, from
which the ring at present receives the
greatest profit, the only means of pros
ecution is under the merch andise acs,
and then only If a false manifest ss
found to have been used.
In the case of opium shipped In