The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-11
Drug Addiction
By 2. ADDINGToN BRUcE

Every once in while the statement is publicly and insistently made that drug ad- diction is on the increase. Only recently in addressing social service conference, .Mr. ". K. McKibbon is reported as having de- clared:
 Forty per cent of the inmates of pris- ons in the. United States are drug addicts, as are 50 per cent. of all court cases
 This habit permeates all classes of so- eiety. There is no use blinking our eyes to the fact that the habitual use of narcotics has been steadily on the increase since the war"
 On the other hand, there are those who contend, with at least equal emphasis, that the situation with regard to drug addiction has actually been changing, not for the worse but for the better.
 Almost at the very time Mir. McKibbon voiced his warning, the United States Public Health Service issued reassuring report by two of it's w6fkers, Drs. Lawrence Kolb and A. c. Du Meg, giving findings based on an analysis of narcotic surveys and statistics ob- tained from Internal Revenue agents, heads of narcotic clinics, and practicing physi- clans.
 To summarize them briefly, these find ings indicate that there has been n steady decrease in drug addiction since 1900, until today, in the entire United States, there are not more than 10000 persons who have a drug habit. Bearing in mind Mir. MeKib- kreaant innate which placed tho number of heFoin addiets alone at IOOO, 900 this goVs ernmentai figure is as surprisingly as it is gratifyingly low
 It is impossible to give here any adequate account of the various reports on which it is based. Only outline mention of few can be made. i
 Drs. Kolb and Du Meg call attention, for one thing, to the results of the United States one hting, to the results of the United States army medical examinations of the World War. Among the men recommended for re- jection from the army, out of about $500, 900 examined, only 3284 were drug addicts. On the basis of the 1920 census this would give not more than 99,5O0 addicts in the general population.
 4 slightly higher total is indicated by the statistics of S4 narcotic clinics established during and after 1919 in various parts of the country These statistics show a total of 4,123 addicts in 34 cities with population of 4,1S2,952. For the country in general this would mean 104,300 addicts.
 The New York City narcotic clinic, not in- cluded among the 34 for statistical purposes, registered 7,464 addicts from April, 1919, to January, 1920. Even assuming that drug addiction is as common in the country as a whole as in thickly settled New York, the total for the country, on the New York basis, would be but 14O, 600 drug addiets.
 In fact, according to Drs. Kolb and Du Mex, through the period 1915 to 1922 the highest estimate deriyable from any system atic narcotic survey is 269,000 and the low est, exclusive of the army survey, is 104 300.
 "These figures" they comment, "nay therefore be accepted as the maximum and minimum numbers for the period. But from what has been brought out relative to the surveys, it would seem that 215,0O0 is more nearly correct for the beginning, and about 10000 the approximate number for the end of the period"
 It is not to be expected that this optimistic conclusion will, be accepted unquestioninely by all interested in the problem of drug ad- diction. But certainly it is to be hoped that it more nearly, represents the true situation than do the estimates which suggest men acing rate of increase.