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The
Online Reefer Madness Teaching Museum
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
(VOL. 81 Part 9, APPENDIX 319)
The Growing Menace of Narcotic Drugs
EXTENSION
OF REMARKS
OF
HON.
HAMILTON
FISH
OF
NEW YORK
IN
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday, February 24,1937
RADIO
SPEECH OF HON.
HAMILTON
FISH, OF NEW YORK,
FEBRUARY 23, 1937
Mr.
FISH. Mr. speaker, under leave to
extend my remarks, I include a radio speech made by me under the auspices of the
World Narcotic Defense Association as a part of its annual Narcotic Education
Week program over the Columbia Broadcasting System, Tuesday evening, February
23, 1937, from Radio Station WJSV at Washington:
The
present century, is suffering from the most serious narcotic drug problem the
world has ever known. This is
largely because science has discovered the ways of producing high-powered drugs
extremely profitable in exploitation from the basic drugs, opium, and cocaine.
There are two angles to this scientific research.
One is the commercial angle, seeking to find drugs that can develop a
ready market in countries from which certain narcotic derivatives are excluded.
These drugs must be so constituted that they can slip through the network
of the laws covering exportation and Importation, national and International.
This research has developed narcotic forms that escape the law by some
technicality, and yet are in demand because they can be restored to the narcotic
character they are supposed to have lost by clever chemistry.
Synthetic
chemists are progressing in the art of manufacturing narcotic drugs like
morphine and heroin from a coal-tar base. Much
of this research is quite honest in its effort to discover drugs that possess
the pain-relieving qualities without the habit-forming qualities of basic
narcotics. In
fact, heroin masqueraded in this guise for some time, though it is now
known as the most pernicious of all narcotic drugs in common use.
It is the conscienceless exploitation by greedy commerce that has made
the narcotic-drug problem so difficult to be handled.
The narcotic-drug traffic has become a serious danger and the economic
and social questions involved In its control are both vast and complicated.
The
opium problem is no longer that of
China
and
India
specifically so long and so ruthlessly exploited by the opium traffic directed
from
Europe
. Nor is the cocaine problem one of
Peru
and
Bolivia
,
Ceylon
and Java, exclusively. The opium
and coca leaf produced is no longer used almost entirely by the addicts of those
countries. A considerable part of
this production now goes to the narcotic factories of the western countries,
there to be turned into narcotic drugs such as morphine, heroin, and cocaine.
It
is estimated that the amount of narcotic drugs consumed by addicts is 30 times
the amount required for legitimate use. This
amount is supplied by the greed of commerce and distributed largely through the
craft of narcotic drug smugglers and clandestine manufacturers.
The economic angle in the producing countries is one which must be given
consideration if anything effective is to be done to reduce production. . Every
effort must be made to give such countries assistance in finding other crops and
products to replace opium and coca leaf which now form an important part in
their domestic and foreign commerce.
From
the social angle the problem is equally serious.
Poverty, crime, insanity follow in the train of the narcotic peril.
Poverty is an inevitable corollary of such addiction for two reasons.
One is that no one wishes to employ a drug addict, since the
unreliability of these unfortunates is proverbial.
The other reason is that the habit is an expensive one.
The money by the user of cocaine or heroin or morphine is mortgaged to
the satisfaction of the false appetite he has developed.
No matter what the cost in money, reputation, or professional advancement
the drug addict must have his customary dose of narcotic.
If for any reason the supply is interrupted, the mental life of the
addict is upset. Such a person is
virtually insane for the time being. From
whatever angle the question is considered, one fact emerges: There is a relation
between the increase in certain crimes and the Increasing illicit traffic in
drugs. It has been estimated that 80
percent of drug addicts become criminals, and that
about 32 percent of the prisoners in Federal institutions are either drug
addicts or were convicted in violation of Federal narcotic laws.
From the army of indictments t narcotic drugs, which are derived from the
evidence presented by the records of criminal courts, physicians in charge of
narcotic clinics, officials of prisons, of hospitals of welfare institutions,
reports of State and National narcotic bureaus, reports of police departments
and of public-health services, the conclusion that can be formed is that every
narcotic drug addict is a potential criminal or social derelict.
The
reasons underlying this conclusion axe twofold; not only are the effects of
narcotic drugs on the nervous system such that the physical organism is injured
but the mind and will are so influenced by the habit urge that the addict is
compelled to continue his indulgence an the penalty of suffering beyond
endurance. The effects of heroin,
cocaine, and marihuana are especially to be
dreaded, because there is in these drugs an initial stage of false stimulation
during which the user is at the may of excited and uncontrolled brain and
nerves. It is in this stage that
young recruits to criminal bands are made. Many
young persons are today facing ruined lives because they started an Indulgence
in heroin, cocaine, and marihuana, for the fun of
it or on a dare. All in all, the
army of narcotic drug addicts in this country furnishes one of our major social
problems.
When
we are considering the seriousness of the narcotics-drug peril there is one
phase of it that we must bear constantly in mind.
That is the impossibility of practicing this habit in moderation.
These narcotic drugs are teed to enslave you if you tamper with them.
There is no halfway stage. You
are free from the narcotic-drug habit absolutely or you are a victim of it
absolutely. The narcotic-drug addict
has sacrificed himself through the inevitable habit he has set up in his system.
The addict to these drugs, opium, morphine, cocaine, heroin, marihuana,
is a victim of a malignant habit from which he Is powerless to free himself once
a tolerance for the narcotic poison has been developed.
This
serious narcotic situation must be remedied as a measure of social salvation,
not only for the
United States
but for all countries. Secretary of
State Cordell Hull has said: "Experience has demonstrated that nations
acting alone are unable adequately to protect themselves against the illicit
traffic in narcotic drugs; isolated action by one country can have no permanent
or effective result while other countries allow free import and export of
drugs.”
America
has taken the leadership In developing this cooperation.
Her leadership appeared in 1909, when the first international conference
was held in
Shanghai
under the presidency of the late Bishop Brent, and has been maintained ever
since. American leadership extends
to the technique of control, the United States Bureau of Narcotics being
recognized as a model for efficiency, and the legitimate manufacturers in
America
as an example of 100-percent cooperation with the Government.
I
have introduced in the Congress a bill (H. R.
229) to prohibit the importation of certain drugs which are used for
making marihuana, a narcotic that is being
extensively used, by the younger generation in
America
. This bill is now before the
House Ways
and Means Committee, and I hope to get favorable action on It during the
present session of Congress.
Marihuana is used largely in the form of
cigarettes, which cause delusions and produce insanity and often lead to
atrocities that only a drug-soaked mind could conceive.
Marihuana is a sinister drug that has only recently become available and
popular among the younger element. It
is much cheaper than cocaine heroin, or morphine, and to that extent more
dangerous, and is fast becoming a serious menace.
There
should be drastic laws not only against the importation of the ingredients but
even more so against the manufacture and sale of marihuana
in cigarettes or in any other form. This
is a matter for the State legislatures and the Congress to take up and adopt
effective legislation without further delay to curb and, if possible, wipe out
this growing evil and menace to the youth of America
.
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