The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-05-04
SeUen Addicts Are Convicted
AS Narcotic Week 4 erninates
Is Arrested In Birmingham In April For Vic
lating Harrison Act Believe Ring Broken

Members OF the Birmingham federal
narcotic squad celebrated National Mar
cotic Education week by putting the
finishing touches to cleanup of con-
ditions in Birmingham and throughout
Alabama that resulted in the sentenc-
ing Of seven dope addicts to the At
lanta penitentiary in two days and
brought the total of convictions for
violating the Harrison Narcotics act
to IS for the month of April.
All but one of the seven entered
pleas Of guilty and expressed will
ingness to carry out whatever sentences
Judge Grub might see fit to impose.
In most cases five years in the federal
penitentiary. the maximum under the
law. After completing the docket, fed
eral officials expressed themselves as
believing that the Birmingham dope
ring, long battling local authorities,
had been definitely and permanently
broken up.
Grave Condition
National Narcotic Education Week
was designated By Postmaster General
HI. s. New as an effective means d
bringing the danger of drug addiction
to the full consciousness Of the people
Il
received special instructions from the
department to cooperate with the ma
tional campaign in every way consistent
with the policy Of the department to
confine itself as far as possible to its
own affairs. An effort was made to en-
phasize the educational aspects Of the
Campaign and school authorities were
invited to present the facts to their
pupils. Official instructions from the
postmaster general to Mr.. Smyer re-
ferred to it as "a grave condition men
aeing our public life"
Narcotic addiction is disease
whose spread is systematically promoted
by the most secretive criminal organi-
cation ever known" the bulletin ex-
planned. The profit is enormous, and
the business is 50 great that it is esti-
mated S1,S25. 10000 spent each year
for narcotic drugs in theN United States
alone The average citizen does not
know any addiets' and vet they are all
around him, each addict a potential
spreader of the disease of addiction"
"Most Alarming Symptom"
Attention has been called to the
diction in the United States, which
most alarming social symptom of the
new century" This increase. given
added impetus by heroin, continues in
spite Of the efforts Of Lawmakers and
those whose business it is to revitalize
its victims through confinement and
treatment.
| more insidious in its effects than
whisky and more difficult to detect
when Joint is raided, it numbers
millions of Americans who have become
slaves to its spell. They crowd the
criminal courts, the prisons and hos
pitfalls, and all over the country new
institutions are being erected to care
for the overflow"
Invades Schools
Use Of heroin added new and in
creasingly dangerous phase to the prob
lem of dope addiction, according to local
narcotic officials, because it added chill
dren by the thousands to the list of
its victims and extended the period Of
addiction several years. Before its COM
ing. they say, child addict is said
to have been comparatively unknown,
but it has invaded the schools for re-
cruits and made doping" a social past