The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1920-01-28
DIR. BARBOT is
DECLARED GUILTY
Illegally Administered Narcotics to
Fourteen Persons
SENTENCE IS NOT IMPOSED
Before Judge Smith Next
Friday

G. Barbot widely known physician
of the City of Charleston, was con-
victed by a jury in the Federal Court
here tonight of violation of the Har-
= rison ant-narcotic act OH fourteen
counts.
The specific charge was that he had
administered narcotics illegally to
fourteen drug addicts not in the
course Of treatment for such cases.
On the two counts that he had not
kept proper record of dispensing
narcotics to patients, the jury ac
quilted him.
He was not sentenced by Judge
Henry A. NJ. Smith, presiding as
Mayor John P. Grace, of Charleston
attorney for Dr.. Barbot, will make an
argument for a new trial on Friday.
The maximum penalty which can be
given Dr.. Barbot on each count is
$4,000 fine or five years Imprisonment
but this can be reduced by the trial
judge in his discretion. The maxi
mum penalty under the jury's verdict
brought against the physician could
be a fine of $4,000 or seventy years
Imprisonment.
The principal witnesses today were
those for the government, who gave
expert testimony on the administra
ton of drugs to addicts and DR.. Bar
bot, himself who told of his practice,
particularly that of drug habitues.
Treatments Defined
Defining two courses of treatment
for drug addicts, rcductional or inst-
tutiona land albulatory, Dr.. p. L.
Litchcnstein, physician at the Tombs
and the house of detection, Of New
York, was the first witness intro
duced by the government today. He
gave description of both treatments,
the essential features Of which were
that the patients had gradual rcduc-
ton of their favoritc drug. He stated
that if the patients were turned out
and allowed to go promiscuously about
and to use the drug as they secured
it they might resort to suicide. He
examined the records of Dr.. Barbot
as to treatment for his drug addict
patients and said that he would not
handle patients subject for the Marco
tic habit as DR.. Barbot had done, as
he considered the method Incorrect
Dr.. j. f. Munnerlyn medical dircc-
tor and Dr.. G. Fred Williams super
intendent of the State Hospital for the
Insane; respectively, testified as to the
treatment Of drug addicts and stated
that they were given Il graduated ta-
BILE for the use Of narcotics as their
patients progressed. They were cut
off as quickly as safety allowed. Both
experts said that they did not know
where addicts could go for free treat
ment outside Of the City of Charles
ton as the State Hospital for the IN
sane had quit taking them unless they
are adjudgcd insane. Dr. Williams
concurred in the statement Of DR..
Litchensten that morphine addicts
would lie to get their favorite drug,
DR.. Williams going so far as to state
that it had been known that they
would steal to get their drug.
DR.. BarbOt Takes Stand.
The defendant, DR.. Barbot, was on
the stand the greater part of the day.
He gave a graphic description of the
many addicts that came to his oZcc,
their condition and their pitiful ap-
pcals. He testified that when the
pharmacists Of Charleston quit sell
ing drugs to the addicts, he COM
menced through humagc principles,
selling it to them to relieve their suf-
fering. He considered It his duty, he
claimed, to do all that he could to
relieve their pain, and HI did not do
so from a ,mcrccnary standpoint. He
did not, he sworc, start drug users to
narcotics, but merely let them have
the drug to keep them from insanity,
suicide or the underworld. AS there
were no institutions at which the
poor could be treated he said he had
helped them relieve their pain.
He declared that he could have so
manipulated his records as to show
balance if he had so desired but thaC
he had not taken such action. He told
of the number Of licenses he had ta',en
out to confor INTO federal require
ments and his inquiries to the federal
government for information regarding