The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-12-22
SCOTLAND YARD
WINSLONG FIGHT
WITH DOPE Ring
Pre-Christmas Drive To
Mark End Of World
Wide Drug Combine
LEASED Wire To Age-Herald)

HRaSed Wire TO Age-Hei""'
LONDON, Dec. 21.-scotland iard
has won a three-year fight with oope'
and most of the higher ups The e1pen-
s;ve,v dressed Capitalists who IL
n.rced the movement Of large quantities
of cocaine from Hamburg to London are
in prison. ~,
A hefore-C Christmas drive against the
chieftains of the British branch ol INV
worldwide habit-forming drug col,oin ;
has reduced the once flourlshing ousi
ness TO a hide-and-seek proposition.
After the war the Chrlstmas-'o-e|
Years holiday season became the Psriou
of feasting for dope users WIN al, .,e
anniversaries of the evil saints Vi .ne
traffic in drugs crowded into ire iasl
weeks of December. 1t was during .his
neriod that wild holiday parties so often
resulted in death to the acoiSt es u
dope.
Move To Alleys
The pasty-faced, fingered men
and women who used to be the retailers
Of cocaine and morphine are selling
their poisons in alleywa.ys instead OIL the
brightly illuminated streets and ques,
tionable night clubs of the west ehe
where they used to transact their pusi-
ness.
There was a time when the traffic IN
done was carried on openly. Inc wal
left thousands of men and women Ill
neurotic condition and susceptlDie 10
the lure of dream potions. Hectic pleas-
ures in the gay resorts around flccauliy
circus offered temporary relief from
the twitching of shattered nerves. Inc
seekers after forgetfulness found that
drunken men became handsomer anu
tawdry women beautiful when seen
through the rosy screen that dope
temporarily drops between the eyes OF
the addict and sordid world.
Negroes Enter Traffic
drugs were wholesaled by ohiheee'
from Iimehouse and American negroes
Who moved up from the Sums u III ~
nete with the continental parasites VIZ
first began the traffic IN niue son nt
restaurants. There the packages
nowder. often grossly adulterateu WI
soda and similar innocuous MATE,
were handed to the sinking men ~. a.u
women who passed it on IN dirty ilttae
packages to the consumers. ileroiii N'
caught on in London. od
Occasional minor dIlcSIS
while the traffic grew. The newspapers
periodically blazoned stories OF dope
parties and of the deaths that followed.
Suicides of actresses, courtesans, army
officers businessmen, oilers and others
from eli stratas of society were traced
to dope. ,.L. =,
The frequency of such deaths IN
,reased and three years ago police began
The campaign which now Is praeticallS
completed.
New Law Passed
IT took a long time to halt the lrahe
f;c Some of the peddlers anG even Va
the vholesalers,-now wealthy 80
sarved two or three short terms peIore
much progress was made. men, Jaw
WIS missed permitting heavier sentences
against drug sellers. .,ho1o-
One by one, the peddlers and "hoie-
salers gave up, and with their surrenu-
or initiation into the drug taking 1rater,
nitv began to decline. The peddlers ana
wholesalers had actively gone atter
new business by inducing any VINO
would to become addicted to drugs.
The dope traffic is back where 1t USED
to be before the war. There Will be
drug fiends always, but most OF those
who are doping themselves now are
the hopelessly degenerate men ana wom-
en- with whom society seems always
encountered. The traffickers In dope
who remain in business spend short
intervals at liberty between long terms
in prison.