New-York tribune., 1919-02-17
BY Arthur Woods,

Dy Arthur W OOdS,
Former Police Commissioner of Ne10
York City
Drink and drugs are silent partners
in many crime. I sometimes think
of them as a means by which a person
born normal makes himself a defective
Certainly and fairly speedily moral
defective, and, if he persist, very likely
physically and mentally defective). and
one cannot but wonder whether these
self-made detectives should not be
treated the same way as born defec-
tives confined and isolated until
cured. It does no lasting good to give
them thirty days or SIX months or SIX
years or whatever the fixed term may
be. You don't send smallpox patient
to an isolation hospital to stay there
for fixed term; you keep him there
until he IS cured or until he dles-he
must stay there until he ceases to be
menace TO the public. In looking at the
matter from the point Of view of the
public-a vantage point often loudly
claimed but too seldom actually Oc-
cupied-we should not release a de-
fective, especially if he has got in the
subnOrmal or made himself subnormal
by drink or drug-we should not re-
lease him TO prey on the public any
more than we should release the leper
or cholera patient to infect the public
with disease.
Police Favor Prohibition
1t is not my province here to go into
a discussion of prohibition, although
from the police point of view it would
be a godsend to any community. AS
cause of crime the habit of strong
drink takes high rank. As cause Of
want and misery and despair it tanks
equally high. From the police point
of view it is not germane to discuss
what may be the best means OF at
tanning temperance. We can say en-
phatically, however, that if intemper-
ance in the use Of hard liquor could
be prevented the police courts would
lose very much of their business. At
a meeting Of the police inspectors in
New York when the sub ject under dis
cusslon was the cause Of crime, one
experienced inspector gave it as his
judgment. which seemed to be general
~ concurred in, that drink was the
biggest single cause Of crime.
Although there may be difference Of
opinion as to the wisest way to meet
agree that war without quarter should
be waged against habit-forming drugs.
To the policeman charged with the
duty of preventing crime the drug men
ace looms especially large. He sees
person after person driven TO crime by
the Unsuitable, burning desire for the
drug, the demand of the body being so
insistent that the drug addict is ready
to commit about any crime to get the
drug or to steal anything which he can
turn in to purchase the drug. The
police officer, too, finds that many a
crime is committed by criminals who
have put themselves on edge so to
speak for the occasion by d dose Of
their favorite drug, so the policeman
has come to the conclusion that { the
traffic in these deadly drugs could be
stopped much crime would be stopped
also
We estimate that in New York City
there are about 100000 persons who
have this drug habit in some form or
other. BY this IS meant not simply
that this large number of individuals
have a certain method of relaxation
which they indulge in once in a while !;
what is meant is that 2000 600 individ-
uals are in the grip Of q habit which
holds them like a wise and which un-
mans them, breaking down their physi-
cal and mental and moral selves with
relentless certainty. The mental de
fectlve whom we have been discussing
and who, we have pointed out, is d
danger to the community because his
adult body is governed by child's
mind, seems from many points of view
10 be less of a danger than the drug
iend. for while both are Irrespons bic
and likely to do strange. unexpected
things, the mental defective may be
rather passive character. harmless
and even likable, while the drug addict
IS driven to action, to unguided un-
governed action, not only by his crav-
ing for the drug, but by reason OF the
exalted stimulation he gets from it.
The drug habit seems to be about as
easy to acquire as it is difficult to
check. For this reason, in spite of all
the laws that have been passed and in
spite of all the efforts to enforce them
it has grown to great proportions. One
drug user IN the neigh borhood is a
source of Infection, practically sure to
corrupt a number of others The
thoughtless person who incautiouslv
takes a sniff of the drug to see what il
feels like may be enmeshed as a result
of this one hapless act. Misery loves
company, and so the practice naturally
spreads; but there is in addition the
commercial motive that impels Illicit
drug vendors to try to increase the
number of their customers +. is a
trade IN which the salesman does not
have to bother his head about getting
repeat orders; after he has made mis-
initial sale his customers come Of
themselves, without any further solci-
tation on his part. 1t is a case where
the trader has little difficulty abour
the demand and where the profits are
so great as to put a tremendous pre-
MUM on evading the law and by hook
or by crook securing the supply
Copyright by Princeton Press published by
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