Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-07-02
Higher Prices Show
Effect Of j. ). War
On Narcotics Traffic
Desperation Hinted
As Underworld Resorts
To Robberies, Foreeries
b. the Associated Press.

b. the Associated Press.
The peddler's price for narcotics Is
up; and Federal agents see signs that
their tightening grip is cutting of
the traffic in habit-forming drugs.
High prices for illicit drugs, &C
cording to Narcotics Commissioner
Harry j. Anslinger, indicate the
effectiveness of agents in stopping up
the supply.
Shortly after April raids in Kan
sas City resulted in SO indictments,
he related. narcotics became so
scarce on the West Coast that rob-
berries OF drug stores and forgery of
doctors prescriptions for narcotics
increased. The price had gone up.
"Our prosecutions in Kansas City
appear to have cut of an important
source Of supply for the distributors, ;"
he said. 1.-THE price of morphine in
San Francisco has more than
doubled. The dealers and their GUS
toners must be desperate if they are
resorting to robbery and forgery"
East Coast Port Tried.
Another sign Of the tighter block
ade on narcotics, he asserted, was
the attempt of Oriental producers to
slip narcotics into America on the
East Coast.
An arrest in Norfolk, Va, disclosed
an attempt to ship opium hidden in
barrels Of vegetable oil via Seattle
to Norfolk. The Treasury's mar
cotics informants, scattered around
the world, had tipped off the ship
ment, and when ther barrels reached
Norfolk, they were put under -four
oscope. Like an X-ray, 1t showed the
secret containers inside.
About 10000 Coast Guardsmen and
$50 customs agents work with the
$50 narcotic agents In the Treasury's
fight against the evil
Meanwhile, worldwide survey
showed, Mr.. Anslinger said, that
while the laws effectiveness against
the narcotics traffic had increased In
most nations, widespread drug-ad-
diction was reported among Japa-
nese soldiers in conquered portions
OF China. Some experts, he said,
called this a backfire from alleged
japanese promotion of narcotics
there.
This was the information Com
missioner Anslinger brought back
from a meeting of the Opium Ad-
visory Committee of the League of
Nations.
Weapon Against China Seen.
For diplomatic reasons the Fed
eral men will not give their own
opinions of Japan's part in the
narcotics problem. But the League
group, which Japan boycotted this
year, has charged the Oriental ma
ton with promoting narcotics dis
tribution among the Chinese to
weaken their resistance.
In the unconquered portions of
China. the committee said, addic-
ton has decreased satisfactorily as
the result Of death to addicts"
decree OF Gen. Chang Kai-shek.
In the United States narcotics
control is not limited to uncovering
struggled supplies, but extends to
roofing out new habit forming
drugs, such as marihuana, and to
trying to cure addicts.
A new hospital was dedicated re-
Gently at Fort Worth to supplement
the curative efforts of the Federal
institution at Lexington. KY. w. P.
A. crews have been enlisted in de-
stroylng known weed patches in
which marihuana grows.
Domestic Crop Faces Extinction.
At the present rate of marihuana
plant destruction, Mr.. Anslinger esti-
mated. domestic sources of this