Perth Amboy evening news., 1924-11-08
HASKINS
LETTER
FIGHTING THE DRUG EVIL
BY Frederic j. Haskin

! N~AtNF~ Sh4s IllOtllu. SlHCe the Inter-
national conference of 1912. forty
eight nations have Enacted laws de-
signed to limit traffic in drugs. and
the narcotic situation has been inn
proving. In this country, particu-
lariy, the number of addicts is on a
decline, and experts say that the
United States has the best control
over drug traffic of any country in
the world.
At the same time, It ia recognized
that no country working single
handed can free itself entirely from
bootlegging in narcotics. AS long
as quantities Of crude drugs are pro-
duced anywhere, and as long as
peddling Illicit drugs is profitable
and sufficiently practicable there
VIII be heavy work for narcotic
squads. So the International con-
ference Is to try to interest the gov
ernments OF the world in a policy of
closer cooperation.
One proposal is ynat production
Of opium and cocoa leaves be re-
stricted to somewhere near the
amount needed for medical and
scientinc purposes. and that the
amount of morphine, laudanum,
heroin, cocaine and other prepara-
tions made from the crude materials
also be restricted.
The opium poppy Is grown mainly
where agriculture is very little de-
| yeloped. The industry is not espec-
tally remunerative, except in in
stances where large crops are mar
| keted. 1t is believed that If the
culture of the poppy Is restricted
many growers will turn to something
else equally profitable.
| If than Gf1rraI,,C onf,,~.
made scarce. and IL close supervis-
ion can make 1t difficult for peddlers
to get it, these peddlers will have to
pay price for it so high that most
addicts will be unable to supply
themselves. This will drive a greater
number of addicts to taking a cure,
and 1t will lessen the number of new
! victims.
The close contro! of drug traffic
| in this country illustrates how this
| would work. Federal and state en-
forcement of narcotic laws have
| caused the price of bootleg drugs
to rise to high fevel Morphine
and heroin are now quoted in the
regular market at $7.35 an ounce, or
less than two cents a grain. This is
the price. which the medical pro-
fession pays for It's needed supply
of opiates. AS about one-fourth of
grain is enough to relieve suffer-
ing, the cost of a dose given by a
doctor is three-eigh. of a cent.
Dope PeddIers Boost Prices
The addict, however, takes be-
tween three and ten grains of NOR
phine or heroin day. or even more.
and If he buys from peddlers he
pays from one to three dollars a
grain. His daily ration of drugs,
therefore. costs him from three to
thirty dollars daily. Government
agents. posing as addicts, regularly
buy evidence from peddlers at these
rates.
The high cost of Illicit drugs is
one reason why so many addicts
turn to peddling drugs or to other
forms of crime as a means of get.
ting large sums of money. It is one
reason, too, why addiction is not
and cannot be. so prevalent in this
country as reports sometimes indi-
cate.
Once in a while. for instance. ru-
mors that there are thousands of
child addicts in ciries or in rural
communities are circulated. Col. L.
G. Mutt. head of the governments
narcotic office, says that his men in
vestigate such rumors but without
ever finding evidence to support
them. 1t is not reasonable to sup
pose that peddlers would make a
practice of turning school children
into adicts, because children could
never get the funds necessary to pay
for regular supply of drugs.
On the contrary, the trend is in
the other direction. In the past five
years, the average age level of ad-
diets has risen from between eigh-
teen and twenty-five years to about
thirty-three years, Indicating that
few young persons are being made
narcotic victims. Limiting and
guarding the amount of narcotics on
the world market would tend to
make Illicit drug prices everywhere
really prohibitive, and so would dis
courage both peddlers and addicts.
Close international cooperation in
the matter of apprehending and
punishing narcotic bootleggers may
also be suggested to the conference
in the hope of driving these para
sites more quickly out of business.
Assistance in this matter would be
OF great benefit to the United States
government, because ninety per cent
of the Illicit drug trade in this eoun-
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 bootleg drug is seized
by narcotic agents, it is customary
for them to notify the country in
which the contraband was manu-
factured.
A fact of which American officials
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 fifteen years ago
doctors were unfortunately respon-
sible for at least fifty per cent of
the cases of drug addiction. When
the hypodermic method of admins
tering drugs came into general use
about the time of the Civil War, 1t
was thought that morphine thus
taken into the system would not
arouse a craving for more. Conse-
quently, morphine was administered
to sufferers with very little regard
for the after effects. and a great
many addicts were made. Then, in
1884 the local anesthetic properties