Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-07-13
Worlds Greatest Expert Lays Bare Pe and Means of Avoidance
Powerful Influences at Wo-Recent Laws That Failed and
Why-To Prevent Nation From Falling Into Great Trap

~ ~ oSA CCHlChI Dclwcen pHys
sicians, drug dealers and drug man.
ufacturers. No other interests are In
volved. It Is a matter far more SIM
pie than the LIQUOR matter, because 1t
never has been given entrance into
politics and bears no relationship
whatsoever to popular amusement.
Save upon occasion in the underworld
(and, contrary to general belief, this
phase of the evil Is comparatively in
Significantly drug taking scarcely can
be called dissipation.
Nothing but pure money greed pro-
notes the drug habit in the United
States. No drug taker Is such because
OF mistaken sense Of what consti-
tutes good fellowship. Mirth. music.
entertainment. are not linked with
morphia or heroin, and only in the
underworld with cocaine. Don't be-
lieve the fiction writer's who say that
an opium den ever was gay.
I'm fact, the restrictions already
placed upon the manufacture. pre-
scription ana sale Of habit-forming
drugs are the very things which most
vigorously promote the drug habit at
the present time. for they offer oppor-
tunity for evil to the wickedly selfish
as we'll as the privilege of mercy to
the skilled and high-minded. They
have not operated as intended.
I'VE must go from mere restriction
into actual prohibition, in drugs as
the amendment sends us in liquor.
and for this statement ample support
exists in the reports appearing con-
stantly in the daily press and is far
more strikingly existent In the un-
published reports Of hospitals, insane
asylums, courts and, above all, the
private practice of honest doctors,
Il 4
"As far as the public authorities
are concerned. no problem whatever
exists. at present, until some viola
tion becomes so fragrant that arrests
necessarily are made. In other words.
the drug evil Is tolerated. trusted not
to wreck the nation, catastrophe
Of which there is little more danger
under prohibition than there would
be without it.
Last September a drug store in
New York was aided by the federal
government officials and the local po-
lice dope squad More than 5000
prescriptions were found on file in
It, all Of which had been filled for
opiates within a year.
I'm twelve months this minor drug
store in New York had dispensed
moro than $4,000 worth Of habit
forming drugs. Practically all the
prescriptions had been written by
three physicians.
pretty bad, Ell? Well. the Jealous
legal effort to punish the wrong
doors in the end revealed the fact
that no law, federal, state or mu-
nicipal. had been violated. No one
could be punished, the traffic could
not be stopped. although the COM
bination had worked incalculable
harm to the community.
ITO fully safeguard the public from
the irresponsible, whether among
physicians, druggists. manufacturers
or anybody else who may wrong
it. Is a worthy thing, implying no
reflection upon honest men in such
restrictions upon unworthy or unwise
banking imply reflection upon re-
sponsible and careful heads of the
nations worthy financial institutions.
The present situation confirms the
statement which l made as long ago
as 1914, when I told the nations
clean, fine medical men that they
needed sadly to safeguard themselves
against the doings Of unworthy men
who had crept into their profession.
This statement I repeat.
In the so-called Boylan act, as pre-
scented to the New York legislature
in January, 1914, was a provision
which would have accomplished much
had IL been allowed to stand. 1t
read:
whenever a physician has prescribed the
Use Of or administers one or
apy OF the drugs daily for the
period Of three weeks. or issues prescrip'
ton for quantity Of any such drugs
such physician shall not continue
without first consulting with physician des.
igna;nd w the board OF health or with another
physician and also making a re
port to the board OF health containing the
name, sex, age. color and occupation Of every
person 80 treated
'In nutshell. and, quoted in the
abbreviated form which is possible