Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-12-02

have been made daily. BY some secret
means opium has been struggled into the
| cty's port, and from here cleVerly distribute
| ed throughout the United States. The state
of California has recently increased its force
| of inspectors to meet the emergency.
| The other day, great excitement caus-
| ed by the arrest of two leading members of
what is thought to be inter-. tional gang
engaged in The smuggling and dispensing of
dope They were found living i'll quiet grand
eur at fashionable hotel, with every ap-
| pearance of dignifed responsibility. They
presented convincing denial to the in
spectors charges. Unfortunately, however,
| they had neglected to dispose of a couple of
| trunk checks! in their possession. These
checks were for two trunks, one dispatched
| from San Francisco to Chicago, and the
other to Boise, Idaho, and each containing
| thousands of dollars worth Of opium. Further
| investigation showed them to be in conni-
vance with suspected Chinaman, the opera
tor of opium joint, whose place was
! raided.
| The chasing of narcotic drug peddlers is
| the most difficult kind of criminal detection
work. Often it is also the most thankless
| task, because only the city authorities are in
| terested in prosecuting them. The people
who are their victims have no such interest,
and often conspire to obtain a peddlers re-
| lease once he is in prison. Very seldom
moreover, can a drug addict be induced to
| give any information concerning the source
| of his dope supply.
| ~
the storekeeper whose store has been robbed,
| the citizen whose hea has been broken by a
footpad 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, though the guilty
party is robbing him of his very life, is I'M
willing to see him put where he belongs-in
jail
nYuO TTSorS Helm
Nevertheless, in answer to the appeals of
| the board of pharmacy for information re-
| garding peddlers, some important tips were
received from drug addicts who professed a
sincere desire to overcome the habit of drug
| using. In fact, the tips were so significant
| that the board recentl made the optimistic
assertion that, with the cooperation of the
local police and federal officials, the peddling
of narcotics in San Francisco will SOON be-
come an activity too dangerous even for the
iron-headed band of traffickers now at large.
eve are going to clean them up or drive
them out of business" it said.
O1e of the tips received by the board was
| from an ex-drug peddler himself.
| II have read with interest in the paper
that they want to get the higher-ups," it
read. well, they have got to go far. r.
have sold lots Of it anC I have finally quit.
But wholesaled it, never pedd1ed it on the
streets. I got mine from the Japs in Seattle.
! They have got enough there to put two
states to sleep.
''The port of Seattle is bigger importing
point than San Francisco. Give the govern
ment officials the tip that the dope is sent
over to Japan and is then reshpped to the
United States"
| The existence of an opium ring is nothing
new in San Francisco 1t is merely the re-
vival of evil which has sprung up every
time heavy restriction has been placed upon
the importation. 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 dis
| tinction of being the place selected by the
smugglers as their basis of operations It
| is always deluged with narcotic drugs and
| it is always trying frantically to get rid of
| them. Thus the records of the local GUS
toms office show that powerful opium ring
was operating in 1909 and 1910 after Pres-
dent Roosevelt signed a bill prohibiting the
| Importation of smoking opium into this
| country. And enty 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 experie-ce the authorities are now
we'll equipped for their work and the pro-
cess of extinction is becoming more and
more expert. The customs officials have
| learned to search every nook and Granny OF
| a vessel for drugs; to inspect every sailor
and mechanic employed Oh lIS ueChs, ~ Idho
all of it's furniture apart, and still to be per-
fectly sure that opium is hidden somewhere
in the near vicinity of their activities.
Where They Hide 1t
| Opium has been found in coal bunkers, in
the engines Of the vessel, in it's flour bins,
| in hollow books, and even in pianos and in
| the ships siren. Sometimes it has been dis
covered behind false paneling and under
staircases and concealed in hollow beams
One large shipment of over a thousand tins
was taken from nine large, Theoretically
sealed cylinders in the water tanks of a
| large ocean liner. Opium users, who in
clude the addicts of such drugs as morphine
and heroin containing opium, are unable to
get along without their DOPE and are willing
| to pay any price for it; hence, the SNUG
Cling of the drug, if successful, is an
| enormously profitable undertaking. 1t
| is merely a Question of thinking of a place
to hide it, which has never been thought of
| before.
There is, however, another, and in the end
| more fatal, method of combating opium
rings, and that is through their victims
| become commonly understood that the vic
| Tins of the drug habit sick people, and
not necessarily dope fiend." Cities have
| become aware of their responsibility to these
| unfortunates, and no longer put them in jail,
! but in hospitals. A few cities, which have
tackled the problem in an especially vigor-
Gus manner, have established clinics and
special hospitals for their drug victims. Last
| year New York had drug clinic, where ad-
diets were supplied with narcotic drugs on
| sliding downward scale until the patient
had reached an irreducible minimum-that
| is, the smallest possible amount on which
4 L. NInn% 1a-z- nj a