The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington d. O.
THE PURSUIT OF THE DOPE

Francisco has recently been engaged
in deadly combat with a large and
powerful opium ring. Opium raids
and arrests have been made daily By
some secret means opium has been
struggled into the citys port, and from
here cleverly distributed turnout the
United States. The state of California
has recently increased its force of in
spectors to meet the emergency.
The other day. great excitement was
caused by the arrest of two leading
members of what is thought to be an
international gang engaged IN the
smuggling and dispensing of dope
They were found living in quiet gran
deur at a fashionable hotel. with ev-
cry appearance of dignified respecta-
bility. They presented a convincing
denial to the inspectors charges. I'm
fortunately, however, they had neg
lected to dispose of a couple of trunk
| checks in their possession. These
checks were for two trunks, one dis
patched from San Francisco to Chi
cago, and the other to Boise, Idaho,
and each containing thousands OF dol
lars worth of opium. Further lnves-
tigation showed them to be in con-
nivanee with a suspected Chipaman,
the operator of an opium joint, whose
place was raided.
The chasing of narcotic drug ped
dlers is the most difficult KIND or
criminal detection work. Often 1t is
also the most thankless task, because
only the city authorities are interested
in prosecuting them. The people VINO
are their victims have no such inter
est, and often eonspire to obtain a
peddleFs release once he is in prison.
Very seldom, moreover, can drug
addict be induced to give any infor-
nation concerning the source OF MS
dope supply.
1.-THE man who has had his pockets
picked. the storekeeper whose store
has been robbed, the citizen whose
head has been broken by foetpad,
the man whose health has been in
jured with a bullet. all of them are
willing to furnish aid in securing the
arrest of the guilty party or parties,
declared Louis Zeh, secretary OF the
Board of Pharmacy the other day.
but the drug user, tho the guilty
party is robbing him of his very life,
is unwilling to see him put where he
beleHgs-in jail"
Drug Users Help.
Nevertheless. in answer to the ap-
peals of the Board of Pharmacy for
information regarding peddlers, some
important tips were received from
drug addicts who professed a sincere
desire to overcom4 the habit of drug
using. In fact. the tips were so signif-
icant that the board recently made the
optimistic assertion that, with the CO.
operation of the local police and fed
eral officials, the peddling of narcotics
in San Francisco will soon become an
activity too dangerous even for the
iron-headed band of traffickers now at
large. I'VE are going to clean them
up or drive them out of business" it
said
One of the tips received by the board
was from an ex-drug peddler himself.
81 have read with interest in the
paper that they want to get the
higher-ups,h it read. "WelI, they have
got, to go far. 1 have sold lots of it
and I have finally quit. But I whole
sailed it, never peddled in on the
streets. | got mine from the Japs in
Seattle. They have got enough there
to put two states to sleep.
THE port of Seattle is bigger inn
porting point than San Francisco.
Give the government officials the tip
that the dope is sent over to Japan
and is then reshipped to the United
The existence of an opium ring is
nothing new in San Francisco. 1t is
merely the revival of an evil which
Ahas sprung UP every time a heavy re-
striction has been placed upon the i'm
portation of narcotic drugs. In spite
of what the drug peddler said about
Seattle, San Francisco, which is the
port of entry for most steamers from
the Orient, has the distinction of be-
ing the place selected by the snug
1
is always deluged with narcotic drugs.
and it Is always trying frantically to
get rid of them. Thus the records of
the local customs office show that a
powerful opium ring was operating in
1900 and 1910, after President Roose-
portation of smoking opium into this
country. And twenty years before
that, when a sudden popular agitation
rose against narcotic Drugs, another
ring of smugglers was playing tag with
the customs officials.
Since the passing of the Harrison
anti-narcotic law, several rings have
come into existence and gone out
again. But trained by long experience
the authorities are now well equipped
for their work and the process of ex-
tinction is becoming more and more
expert. The customs officials have
learned to search every nook and
Granny of a vessel for drugs; to in
spect every sailor and mechanic en-
ployed on its decks, to take all of its
furniture apart, and still to be per-
fectly sure that opium is hidden some
where in the near vicinity of their
activities.
Where They Hide 1t.
Opium has been found in coal bunk
era, in the engines of the vessel, in its
flour bins, in hollow books and even
in pianos and in the ships siren.
sometimes II mas Deen discovered De-
hind false paneling and under stair
cases and concealed in hollow beams.
One large Shipment of over a thou
sand tins was taken from nine large,
Theoretically sealed cylinders in the
water tanks of a large ocean liner.
| Opium users, who include the addiets
of such drugs as morphine and herein
containing opium, are unable to get
along without their dope, and are will
ing to pay any price for it; hence, the
smuggling of the drug, IL successful, is
an enormously profitable undertaking,
1t Is merely a question of thinking of
place to hide it, which has never
been thought of before.
There is however, another, and in
the end more fatal, method of com
batting opium rings, and that is thru
their vietims-the drug addiets. In
recent years, it has become commonly
understood that the victims OF the
drug habit are sick people, and not