The Washington times., 1922-05-06
DRUGSELL|NG|S
DRIVEN OUT Of
SHOP To ALLEY
Doctors Easily Caught, But
PeddIers Still Ply Trade
In Hundreds.
BY Annie Laurie.


BY Annie Laurie.
CHICAGO. May 6.-The drug t-sf.
fic in Chicago is actually on the
rampage today.
Morphine, heroin. cocaine, codeine,
and all the rest Of the narcotics, put
In capsules. put up in pills. put UP in
plain powder and sometimes dissolved
into a liquid, are for sale in every
alley and by.way Of the town.
The doctors and druggists who once
sold the stuff have beer frightened
out Of the business.
Wholesale arrests end convictions
did that work. And the new system
Of checking prescriptions had q good
deal to do with soaring the low-class
doctors ard druggists away from the
trade.
One doctor here was found to have
500 patients"
He gave them each two treat.
ments" a week AZ 81 treatment.
and was rolling up a fortune. making
new addicts and selling to the old
ones.
That doctor In in the penitentiary
today and he is likely TO stay there
until he dies
Effect Did Not LAST.
What happened to him and hi.
kind had a great wholesome effect
for awhile.
Down in the thriving little town
Of Peoria they arrested seventeen
doctors and druggists who were
making handfuls OF money selling
narcotic drugs
For awhile after these arrests and
convictions. the smaller towns Of
Illinois We're comparatively free
from the drug evil. The victims
sent away for their drugs and got
them by mail.
oh. yes. they got them somehow.
A drug addict will get drugs II he
has to go hungry. homeless and
ragged to do II. He will risk his
life and the lives OF everyone he
loves for just one shot of morphine.
or one sniff of heroin.
But the shameless. almost open,
traffic through the drug stores and
the doctors stopped.
Sold I'm the StreetA.
Now the narcotics are sold. not in
! the drug store. nor in the offices OF
half-reputable physicians. but in the
streets. in the soft drink places, in
/ the cheap cafes, in the cheap moving
/ picture houses. wherever the cruel
and the greedy can find victims.
The Chicago police report a mark.
/ cd increase in the number OF drug
users. The Federal authorities tell
! the same story, and nobody seems to
/ know what 10 do about IL.
Every day the papers are full OF
stories of strange crimes that bcar r
/ the unmitsskable marks OF the work
OF drug fiends Young boys Of good
families hold up automobiles and
/ rob and attack the occupants Won.
en- sitting AZ home behind lock ed
/ doors are attacked and robbed by
! men who manage 10 get into the
! most carefully guarded places.
Young girls with everything to live
| for commit suicide. Anyone who has
made a study of the narcotic evil will
recognize at once these symptoms
And IL has all taken on a new
| phase in the last few months.
| When the druggists and doctors
were frightened out of the trade by
police and Federal prosecution, ne
groes got hold Of the traffic.
But they did not last long. They
were too easily marked and identified
!
out Of fashionable apartment houses
( or knocking mysteriously at hote
doors So white men and white
! here in Chicago. II is almost entirely
in the hands OF big Italian dope
ring"
This ring sells misery. day in and
| day out. and every night these
wretched creature. haunt the ALLEYS
and all the sodden bywsys of this
great amazing city and ply their
trade. apparently with little fear OF
| interruption.
Morphine is being smuggled into
Chicago from Milan, China ant
India. from Canada by way OF De
troit. from Mexico by the way of the
border and from Scotland and Ger
many by way OF New York.
Ii comes in boxes and in little oil
skin waterproof bags. no cut that
they fit to the fingers and can bt
worn without detection.
Many Ways OF Hiding.
II comes in the heels Of high.
heeled shoes; II comes in fountain
pens. 1t comes in specially made
grooves in walking sticks and um'
brellas. 1t comes in wrist watches
from which the works have been re.
moved. 1t comes in little pellets
| hidden I'm a womans hair.
And when the police arrest the
peddlers nothing happens
The peddlers always get bail and
the minute they are out they are
at work again. as cruel as the
grave, as relentless as death itself
The resignation of Federal Judge
Lands and the long illness OF Judge
Carpenter have delayed the prosecu.
tion Of most of the Government
cases.
Tn, police cases are deferred
and put over" again and again.
and when they do come 10 trial
the police judges give lenient sen.
tences. and nobody cares and no.
body seems to want to care.
Except the mothers. They worry
great deal about IT. You see the
peddlers do not let the high school
boys and girls alone, and the dope
ring" has a dozen clever WAYS TO
catch Young BOYS and girls I'm the