The Washington times., 1917-12-11
YELLED WOMEN
BARE TORTURES
Of DRUG ADDICTS

NEW 1OIkhs ItC- IL AN gANACA
periences OF women and men torn on
the rack of the drug habit were told
at the hearings being conducted by
the joint legislative committee to get
facts from the drug addicts them
selves on which legislation for
State hospital may be framed. a hos
pital which they can enter without
the ignominy of being adtudged
criminals.
The impressions produced by sob
bing. veiIed women were vivid. And
they were not Of the type one
usually associates with the drug
habit. They appeared from their
dress and their manner OF expression
to be women of good standing. and 1t
who years ago was one of the best
known actresses on Broadway.
Habit Formed in Hospital.
Aside from the fact that they
showed once more the drug habit to
be prevalent among men and women
rather we'll up in the ladder OF hu.
man society, they also made evident
the great danger in administering
drug to relieve pain after an opera
tion or during an illness. The four
women-identified before the commit.
tee ony by the designations, Mrs. a.
B. c. and d, which added to the sug-
gestion OF mystery and made theiI
stories even more effective than they
might have been without the wells
and the lack of identity-Gll said they
had become victims Of the drug habit
without knowing it, opiates have
been given them after operations.
The one man who testified said that
he had taken it to relieve rheuma-
tism.
Senator George H. whitney, chair
man OF the committee, opened the
meeting by reading an outline OF the
work which the committee proposes
to. do, working on the theory that "a
drug addict is a maligned and perse-
cuted victim OF a definite disease"
Weapon Of White SIaVers.
THE part played by narcotic drugs
in recruiting young girls for white
slavery and in keeping them there
has been brought to our attention"
said Senator Whitney.
All the witnesses emphasized the
torments they went through in the
private hospitals where they sought
relief, suffering so great that often
Lnt1 NtIE lolNNN " nc anu
the money they had paid in the eN-
pectation OF being cured. And yet so
hard did they try to rid themselves
of the habit for the sake OF their
families and their own self-respect
that they often went back and went
through the same unhappy experience.
The story OF Mrs. A., a well-dressed
woman whose face was concealed by
a heavy purple veil, Is typical. She
characterized her experience in
sanitarium as horrible" The drug
was taken from her after three days,
and she suffered so that she pleaded
to be allowed to go, and finally they
did discharge her. Her desire after
leaving the sanitarium was greater
than before she entered. She went to
another private hospital, where she
went through the same experience.
Her experiments in getting cured"
cost her thousands of dollars and
nearly ruined her husband.
Given Morphine on Discharge.
Only her love for him and for her
sister, she said, drove her again and
again to the agony of these so called
cures. When she found she wasn't
cured after her first treatment she
went back again to the sanitarium.
where the proprietor refused to take
her because she had no money. She
described the life in these places as
hell on earth"
When she was sent from another
place in which she was a patient,
!. thinking herself finally rid Of the dis
ease, two tablets were given her in
case she did not feel well. She col
lapsed before she got home. took one
of the tablets and felt much better,
but when she reached nome she felt
bad again and took the second. Her
condition became so bad her physi-
clan was called. He said the tablets
had been morphine.
The next witness was "a young
woman who said she was a nurse, and
who, like Mrs. A, had been given the
drug after an operation. After vainly
trying several cures she went to a,
sanitarium and described her expert
ence there as torture in the extreme"
She knew as a nurse that she was not
getting proper treatment. The nurse
who attended her was so affected by
her suffering that she finally refused
to enter the room and resigned her
position
After week her mother took her
away, and on their way home they
stopped at hotel in Boston. Their
room was on the tenth floor and she
said that in the night she found her
self hanging out the window and
could not remember how she got
there