The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-02-28
NJ. D."

Section 79S. When and how pre-
scriptions may be filled.-No pre-
scription shall be filled herein .ex-
cept upon tho day upon which it is
issued or the following day, and no
more than pne+hslf pint Of alcohol
shall be sold and delivered on any
one prescription, and when such
prescription is filed, it shall not be
reflled but shall be delivered to the
druggist filling the same, and at
the end Of the month in which the
same is filled, it shall be filed; by such
druggist in the Office Of the Clerk
of Court of the county in which
said druggist is engaged in business:
Provided, No druggist, who is also
a practicing physician, shall fill his
own prescriptions hereunder, nor
shall they be filed at any drug
store in which the said physician il
financially interested: Further Pro-
vided, That the delivery of such
alcohol sold under such prescription
shall be- made only directly to the
person for whom such prescription
is issued or to the physician, or to
some one authorized by the physi-
clan or in case of a minor to his
parent or guardian or physician or
some one authorized by said physi-
clan. .
It will be remembered that the
gallon-a-month law left these pro-
visions of full force and effect.
Therefore, there was no need for
any provision in the Durant Bill or
in any other law for obtaining IL
quor for medicinal purposes. The
provisions in the bill to allow indi-
viduals to procure alcoholic liquors
"for medicinal purposes" in the
face OF. the existing law on the sub
ject, are so plainly evasive of the
real purpose of the bill as to need
no statement Of its purposes. The
purpose plainly was to allow persons
to obtain liquor for beverage pur-
poses under tho hypocritical pre-
tense that they were to be obtained
for medicinal purposes.
The other provisions of the bill
show this. A man who is sick and
is needing liquor as medicine, un-
der the Durant Bill, must suffer on
from his malady until he can get to
the probate judges Office and make
an affidavit that he needs some IL
quor for medicine. The probate
judge then issues a permit for an
order, and an order is sent to Bal
timore, and the sick man grunts on
until it arrives, and if the bottle is
broken in shipment, he must remain
sick awhile longer, and order again.
A law of this kind passed "for medi-
cinal purposes" in the face of law
already on the statute books for
procuring alcohol as a medicine at
the very time when it is needed is
so plainly an attempt to make the
people believe that they are getting
one thing when another thing (pro-
curing liquor for beverage pur-
poseD , is meant that it needs only
a statement of the case to show it.
Such;a law Gould have been support
ed by men only on the ground of so
or through ignorance.
Now, it will not be denied that if
the Durant Bill had done what even
it was intended to do, and if the en-
actment of congress had not come
about, some good results would
have been procured. The amount
of liquor to be obtained for bever-
age purposes by an individual would
have been cut from a gallon to a
quart each month. There is the
additional provision that only male
persons twenty-one years old may
order, and that females cannot Or
der unless they are the heads of
families. On the other hand, an
old maid may die for the want. of
liquor under the Durant Bill, or an
infant if he has no parent or guar
dian, may do the same, but he can
not get the "medicine" which that
bill provides, which exhibits again
some of the defects of the bill as a
health guardian.
But any good features incorpor-
ated in the bill to make it look in
viting are entirely overshadowed
by other provisions which make it
inimical to good morals and good
government. There are many
crimes worse than liquor drinking,
even the excessive drinking of liquor.