Evening star., 1925-07-27
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

Word comes from Swampscott,
Mass, that President Coolidge has
determined TO undertake to procure
more effective legislation for combat
ing The drug habit in the United
States. Sharp criticism has been pub
lished concerning the alleged futility
of American action at the Geneva
opium conference, where it was
hoped some form of international
control of the production of opium
and its various derivatives would be
agreed upon, but no such agreement
was reached.
The League of Nations health COM
mittee states that the worlds legiti-
mate annual use of opium for med
icinal and scientific purposes is 720
tons. India alone produces 1000 tons,
and China, Persia and other Asiatic
countries make up a total of $500
more tons. The world produces five
times as much as it legitimately
uses; the excess brings more misery
and crime than all the alcoholic
nounced and against whose continued
use the United States Government
has set its strongest forces.
Anti-prohibitionists are prone to
point to the increase of the drug evil
in America since the passage of the
Volstead law, but 1t is claimed by
high authority that there is no con-
nection between the drug habit and
alcohol. Since the first public appre-
hension of the evils of opiateS became
manifest in 1918, five years before the
prohibition amendment. one might as
we'll connect it with the outbreak of
the World War or the defeat of the
Republican party or the Ohio flood,
as to attribute it to the suppression
of the saloon.
Judge William McAdoo, chief city
magistrate of New York City, states
that he has dealt with thousands of
cases of addicts. after the prohi-
bition law went into effect" says
Judge McAdoo, II especially inquired
If the addicts had been hitherto ac-
drink. Contrary to the general inn
preston, they have almost invariably
replied in the negative-that is, there
was no connection, apparently. be-
tween the difficulty in getting alco-
holic drinks and the taking of mar
cotic drugs"
Nor is the general impression cor
rect, says Judge McAdoo, that many
cases are the result of doctors pre-
scribing narcotics to relieve great
pain. Such instances do occur, but
they are comparatively rare. The
larger number of addicts start be-
cause of the pleasure Of the early
doses, their stimulation in cases of
fatigue, especially at all-night dances,
where young men find themselves ex-
hausted while noting that rivals for
the favor of their ladies' appear vi
vacious through the long hours of
dissipation. Some friend offers re-
lief from a whiff of the opiate, heroin
or "snow," and they find all feeling
Of exhaustion quickly gone. The
treatment is repeated and, perhaps,
within one week, or within an aston
ishingly short period, the drug fastens
itself upon them and addicts are
formed.
Ninety-eight per cent OF the addicts
of New York are young men under
80 years Of age; only few are WON
en-, and they, too, are young. Those
who begin under 80 years may survive
| for years as slaves to the torturous
drug. So long as they can get sup
ply they may deceive for years even
| their intimate associates, but the grip
ever increases it's hold until madness
or death results. Drunkenness cannot
| be so concealed. Opium or heroin
causes its victims to lose all sense of
self-respect and makes them adopts
In concealment, deprives them of every
computation Of conscience in deceiv.