The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-10
BY JOHN WALKER HARRINGTON.

By JOHN WALK
- HEY who are thrals to veronal are
among the ever increasing slaves of
the vial of whom there are now said
to be more than a million in the United
states
This latest phase Of the peril of drug adj
diction which threatens every community
came to light only a few days ago through
the death of young woman at the Hotel
Seville from an overdose of this sleep in
ducing agent The official investigation Of
its properties and effects which has been
begun by the Department of Health already
shows that the drug is being used extensively
by persons who formerly found exhilaration
in alcohol. The deaths from overdoses of
the sedative in the last few months, how
ever, have caused the authorities to investi-
gate the sale and usage of this substance,
which hitherto has not been considered dam
gerous enough to be on the list of prohibited
drugs under the Harrison law.
First Exploited by the Germans.
AS was the case with the deadly heroin,
which destroys annually hundreds Of VIC
Tins throughout the country. veronal has
been hailed as harmless sleep inducing
remedy. 1t is a brand of what chemistry
knows better as barbital or diethylbarbituric
acid, which was originally exploited by the
Germans 1t is quickly absorbed and in small
doses, usually of five grains. it induces sleep
and until recently, at least, it was credited
with having no after effects. In large doses
however, it acts as a heart depressant and
experiments on animals show that it causes
rapid lowering of the temperature
Dr. Charles Frederick Stokes, formerly
Surgeon General of the United States Navy
and at one time head of the farm for addcts
organized at Warwick by the Inebriety
Board says that veronal when taken in
heavy doses ceases to be the innocent hyp-
motto of the medical text books, but causes
general generalization of the system and
the bodily functions and destroys the will
of the patient.
It's effects are now considered so serious
that Dr. Royal S. Copeland, the Commits
sioner of Health, has directed the bureau of
foods and drugs to find out to what extent
veronal is being used as a substitute for
liquor and to report its effects upon the
human system, in the light of the inforna-
ton concerning it which has just been shed
by the tragic death Of the young woman at
the Hotel Seville. A similar line of inquiry
is also being undertaken by Chief Medical
Examiner Norris.
A white, crystalline powder which has
been readily obtainabe in tablet form, vero-
nal has come into vogue within the last few
years as a remedy for insomnia, and since
the enactment of the Eighteenth Amend
ment 1t has steadily become more and more
popular with persons who were unable to
get their old time allowances of alcohol.
Even under present conditions its growing
use has given grave concern to the author-
ties not only on it's own account, but for the
reason that it represents the hidden perils
which are besetting every community in the
United States.
Secrecy Adds to Peril.
Drug addiction is more or less of a secret
vice and therefore even the high figures of
registration of addicts obtained by the New
York State Department of Drug Control and
by the Department of Health. and the nu-
merous arrests for illegal drug traffic made
by the police give only faint indication of
the national menace. The peril is greater
because of the dearth of institutions in
which the victims of drug habits can be
treated for most of them are merely pro-
longing their slavery and filling the purses
o. the INSCRIPTIONS.
Severe repressive measures undertaken for
the suppression of the drug traffic are con-
stantly enforced in this country under the
Harrison law
Only few days ago the largest seizure of
drugs ever made in this State took place in
heroin and cocaine confscated. Four
men were arrested charged with conspiring
to violate the. Harrison drug act, the
ground that sales were made without the
necessary certificates.
The large value of this chemical cache and
the large quantities OF drugs captured from
smugglers from time to time, are indices of
the enormous extent of the Illicit traffic on
this side of the water and of the large num-
Der of the votaries of the narcotics.
A special committee appointed by the Sec
rotary of the Treasury reached the con-
clusion that fully l per cent. of the inhabi-
tants of this country were drug addcts
There are brought to the United States every
year ON an average of $4,000 pounds of
opium which were it all used here would
make a per capita consumption of forty-flve
grains year. as compared with a per capita
consumption of this lethal agent of three
grains year in leading European countries
Although heavy restrictions are placed on
the sale of opium and Its derivatives. they
can be manufactured in large quantities
and shipped to other lands. Once across the
border. either in Mexico in Canada, the
baleful alkaloids of the poppy are struggled
back into the land where they were pre-
pared The crude gum is brought largely
from India, Russia and Turkey, from which
countries II is sent stealthily or openly to all
parts of the Orient and the Occident.
Earnest efforts have been made every
where to stop the traffic i'm the gum which
makes so many "thralls to sorrow when
they would be the pages OF Joy" The