Evening star., 1949-03-20

that babtuate As the rising rate of death and
addiction indicates these efforts have been successful
Main trouble is they don't strike at the source.
u S. Public Health authorities have for time recon-
mended that the barburaes be placed under the Harrison
Drug Act the strict and efficient Federal code that guards
use OF opum morphine, heroin cocaine and maruana.
This proposal has met with much opposition, how
Its critics favor control And Narcotics
Commissioner Harry J. Ansinger of the Treasury De-
partment has expressed preference for
The American Pharmaceutical Association and the Ameri
Medical Association both definitely for state control
They that physicians and pharmacists already over
brdened with red tape and records in the dispensing drugs
for medical Barbtuates widely used in medical
practice Added regulations would impose an ntoerabe
bookkeeping burden gets pretty involved when you have
to keep tabs the Federal law would demand on every man
or woman you give sleeping tablets to.
Measures Ds.'t Go Far Enough
lHE job of enforcing the law would by the TOKEN be
supehuman 1t would require Federal police force
many times the size of the present
The burden therefore, has been transferred to the states
But the states have been aggad say least in passing
effective legislation Only IL of the 48 states have laws that
the socaed model law suggested by the New
York State Medical Association The of this law to
bar the sale of barburaes except doctors prescription
to prohibit the rehng of prescriptions by druggists and
limit the number of sleeping pills prescribed at one time
These and other suggested state measures, do not far
enough Even where they fully applied New Jersey
they have not curbed sleeping pill suicides.
There nothing in the best of these state measures that
would prevent woudbe suicide from obtaining prescrip
tons from than doctor and having them legally filed
at more than one drugstore He up pills in small
amounts - two three at time until ethal amount
is accumulated few unethcal druggists doctors flood
an entire city with sleeping pills. And they do
The lpecac Formula if applied under Federal law would cut
across the contradictions and nadequacies existing and
proposed state legislation 1t would control the evil at the
source - in the factory where barbturaes compounded
whey T.ke Their Trad. Else~A.r,~
HE lpecac Formula would relieve the honest druggist of
unethcal competition. AS matters stand now" said one
druggist Il have aenated dozens of customers and even close
friends by adherng strictly to the state law refuse to sell
them sleeping pills except prescription and ignore their
requests for es What happens They get the pills any
way and they take their trade where they get the pills.
The lpecac Formula would relieve the doctor, too of
awful responsibility. How he read the of a
man who comes to him. jttcry and haggard and COM
planning of insomnia? Does the sleep or eathr
Many doctors have jumped the gum They already use
pecac when they suspect the patient seeks seep
As matter of fact the pecac Formula is not new one
The investigation conducted by the writer started in
formation that German pharmacists had mixed pecac with
barbturates early 1882. And in this country Los
Angeles pharmacist has patented and put the market
new sleeping pill preparation containing ipecac.
To up medical authorities think that mixing ipecac with