Evening star., 1924-11-09
FIGHTING THE DRUG EVIL
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

the Illicit drug trade in this coun-
try is due to smugglers.
The United States, Great Britain,
France and Germany already have a
system Of keeping one another in
formed and warned of shipments of
illegal narcotics. And when a large
quantity of a bootleg drug is seized
by narcotic agents. 1t is customary
for them to notify the country in
which the contraband was manufac-
tured
A fact of which American oficials
are proud is that in the past two
years there have been no American
made drugs to speak of picked up
in illicit channels in international
trade. There might be a very little
obtained from a doctor or from a
ships stores, but there have been no
big or important seizures. This in
dicates that the United States is
keeping to the letter of the law by
manufacturing drugs only for legal
lied use, and that bootleg drugs are
almost entirely Of foreign origin.
Doctors Once Responsible.
The medical profession admits that
up to about Is years ago doctors
were unfortunately responsible for at
least so per cent of the cases of drug
cd of administering drugs came into
general use, about the time of the
Civil War, it was thought that NOR
phine thus taken into the system
would not arouse a craving for more.
Consequently, morphine was admins
tered to sufferers with very little re-
gard for the after-effects, and a great
| many addicts were made. Then, in
1884, the local anesthetic properties
of cocaine were discovered, and ad-
diction to this drug spread In 1898.
heroin was put on the market as an
| opiate which would not cause addic-
ton, and it was almost a decade be-
fore doctors fully realized the danger
Of this drug.
There will always be a few cases
in which the medical profession con-
siders itself justified in deliberately
permitting a sufferer to form the
drug habit. A patient who is in in
tense and constant pain and who has
only a limited time to live has moth
| ing to lose by taking drugs under
prescription. These cases are excep-
| tions. Oficials believe that in recent
years instances of addiction caused
| by physicians are rare, and that
| almost no doctors or druggists dis
| pense narcotics unlawfully.
Professional smugglers and peddlers,
however, eagerly take up the business
of making addicts and keeping them
| supplied with drugs as soon as coun-
| try begins enforcing laws to prevent
any one from buying drugs openly.
The boldness of these smugglers Is
amazing, and stories Of their ingenious
methods are endless.
Col. Mutt has in his ofilce a collec-
ton of exhibits taken from smugglers
A hustle worn by a woman arrested
on the Mexican border contained $1,000
grains of heroin, worth at least dol
lar a grain. A prosaic-looking, well
worn school book was carried by a
peddler. When opened 1t revealed
pages cut out so as to make hollow
cavity, and in this cavity was q supply
of narcotics. A Gideon Bible was used
! in the same way to hold a hypodermic
needle, tubes of morphine and other
materials.
One of the most remarkable exhibits
is a pair of khaki overalls with ordi-
nary metal buttons. The center por-
| tion Of each button contained enough
smoking opium, in full view. to make
a pipeful.
Government agents trail down such
| SCIlcHlcS REGULARLY, dhu tHS Sooi - al q
| giving heavy sentences to smugglers
and peddlers. There were 1000 con-
victions for violations of the narcotic
law in 1929 alone. which explains. to
great extent, the reports of large
numbers of addicts in prisons.
The situation in the United States
is summed up by Col. Mutt as bad
enough. but not SO bad as some try to
depict" Until 1915 there was no
smuggling. because there was no rea-
son for it, and figures on imports of
opium show clearly how many addicts
could be supplied. We hear sometimes
that there are a million or even two
million dope fends in this country.
but officials say this is impossible.
According to their estimates. the
curve Of addiction rose from Civil War
days to a peak of perhaps ESQ., 900 at
the end of the century. Twenty years
of campaigning against the traffic have
reduced the number of cases to about
110,000-which Is still $4,000 more
1 than the Government thinks that there
should b.