Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-30

Attorney Nsencral Ssreen 10 tnhkc tis
cases so alright before General Sessions
that the prisoners could not escape. Tho
law hthey had to work upon was mighty
poor material, but they did wonders with
IL.
DELAwARE's WEAK LAW.
Here il is. Section 1896 of the Revised
Code in part:
"Whoever shall sell, or in any way
dispose Of To any person morphine,
opium. .cocane, choral-hydratc, or
any Of their compounds, except to
licensed physician or on the authority
Of such licensed physician. or shall
fail to keep on file ut his place OF bust
ness. any such certificate Tor ,nspcc-
ton of NIL persons. after the same has
been surrendered To him by the
buyer of any such drugs, or shall use
or fill out any such certificate more
than once, for the benefit of the per
son presenting the same, or any
other person. shall be punishable by
fine not exceeding two hundred dol
lars, or by imprisonment not exceed
ing one wear, or both by fine and I'M
prisonmcnt at the discretion Of the
court"
In the first place, the law did not
specifically name heron rs among tho
prescribed drugs. 1t did say, however.
''any Of their compounds, with reference
to them and il was therefore mp 10 MIR
Rcinhardt and Mr.. Green to prove heron
compound" of morphine. And right
here they encountered n snag, because IN
4 number Of cases II was contender ny
lawyers defending the accused sellers
that heron was "derivative OF NOR
phin and not "A compound and evidence
was presented To show this to tee the case
On this techncahty there were ,ndios-
tons that many guilty trathckcrs would
sin out of the laws clutches. The state
tool. tho ground that while the language OF
chemistry might call heroin derIvativc
If morphine II was in the language OF com
mon sense q compound OF II also since
in it's composition were morphine and other
chemicals and substances. mixture which
in dictionary English is uuqucstionahiy n
compound Believing that this question
would arse nj the present term OF court.
Ntr Green ''honcsl ON chemistry IN
general and heron IN particular with
state Chemist Watson until he felt HIM
self ready 10 meet brigade OF adverse
experts
y result of tho activities Of the Al
torncv Generals office and the police the
Grand Jury this term handed up no less
than g. indictments involving 10 persons
Tor violation of the drug act IN ill1ciiiv
selling or handling heron. and OF these
ono was an indictment for mansla,ghtcr
" hon the cases were brought to trial. the
state made grand cleanup. Only one
defendant got verdict Of mot guilty.
h,It when the November term comes she
will he tried on another indictment.
rms TRRM & RrCoRD
Hero IS the record
Helen aw convicted upon ono mll
and sentenced
Clara Lewis. acquitted on ono bull
and awaiting trial on another
Elsie Johnson. convicted on one
bin and pleaded guilty on another.
sentenced
Lizzie Parker convicted on one hill.
sentenced
Perry lewis turned over 10 the
military authorities
samuel Crccu convict Cd on one bull
and pleaded guilty ON another. sch
cnced
William Smith awaiting trial at
tho November term
Frank Wornlcy pleaded guilty
on one hill sent encod
Samuel popcek. continued until
tho November term
Dwell II Moore turned over 70
the military authorities
blanche Collins. pleaded guilty ON
one bin and convicted on another.
sentenced
VI Libel Burton bulls uollc pressed
0ccausc ~ aid re- ndcrcd State IN Sc
curing convictions
- Ep.1x ALL u