The Online Reefer Madness Teaching Museum
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
Feb. 1935 – page 90
“The DOPE Menace”
(and
What You, As a Law-Making and Law-Abiding
Citizen, Can Do About It) -
By Vera Connolly
WE
HAVE a drug addiction problem in the United States---a grave one.
We must awake quickly to the seriousness of it.
Every man and woman of us. Every
adolescent boy and girl.
Hon.
Harry J. Anslinger, United States Commissioner of Narcotics, warns us that there
are over 100,000 confirmed addicts in this country, each a potential creator of
other of addicts. They include all
social classes, all occupations, both sexes, and all ages---though youth
predominates. The United States, he
declares, has become one of the four principal white-drug addiction nations of
the modern world. Dr. Walter L.
Treadway, Assistant Surgeon General, United States Public Health Service,
asserts that our addicts number 200,000.
These
two authorities are the most conservative in the country.
Other students of the problem quote much higher figures.
This article will confine itself to conservative figures, to
understatement rather than overstatement. The
subject is horrific enough without exaggerated headlines or morbid pen pictures.
Most
of us adults know what drug addiction does to the individual, to his family, to
his community. We know that it is
the most hideous, utterly destructive vice there is. Most of us who are past thirty-five have witnessed its effect
on some one. Or else we have read
about it.
Most
of us middle-aged folk are fully informed.
We know where the pitfalls lurk, inside the home and outside it.
We have been warned against ignorant self-medication.
Against long-continued use of any medicine which contains narcotics.
Against the temptation to resort to a narcotic drug for rest or stimulus
during overwork or nervous strain. Against
the cowardly suggestion that escape from life's troubles may lie in mild
addiction, whereas there is no such thing as mild addiction.
Against the morbid curiosity, inane bravado, or desire for a thrill,
which would impel us to "try a shot of the stuff just once."
We know that with certain persons one dose is enough to cause addiction.
We
know of all these lurking dangers---we who are past thirty-five.
We know, and most of us are wise. But
our boys and girls, our young men and women, do not know!
And it is they who are the principal victims today.
Hear this curt warning from Dr. Treadway:
"Youth
is especially susceptible. Addiction
is usually found between the ages of twenty and thirty-five.
Fifty percent of all our drug addicts were established in their vice
before the age of twenty-five; and three-fourths of them before the age of
thirty."
Impetuosity,
emotional instability, curiosity, ignorance of life, pliability, love of a
thrill---these are the traits of adolescent youth. And they render many young people the helpless prey of any
dope peddlers they chance to encounter.
This
is not astonishing. What is amazing
is that we elders are doing almost nothing to prevent such encounters!
Many of our cities and towns are swarming with illicit dope peddlers.
They are found in villages, in rural sections.
And they operate practically unrestrained!
Only
a few states are making the slightest effort to run down the dope peddlers and
lock them up. In most of our states
the local illicit narcotics peddler is permitted to carry on his hideous trade
openly. Indeed, the statute books
if most states provide no punishment whatever for the crime of dope peddling.
It is not even classed as a minor misdemeanor.
Such is our appalling apathy regarding this peril.
A
ringing call to all of us to spring to quick action is being sounded by the
Federal Government. We are being
asked to get behind the Uniform State -Narcotic Drug,
Act now being presented to the Legislatures in 38 states; to mass
ourselves behind it grimly---as citizens, as parents-and demand its adoption in
every state.
It
is the most powerful piece of state legislation aimed at the local dope peddler
and the spread of addiction ever framed. It
was drawn up in 1932 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform
State Laws. It has been approved by
the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, the American
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Kiwanis International, the General,
State, and City Federations of Women's Clubs, the National Congress of Parents
and Teachers, the United States Government. (Continued on page 94) Nine states
leave already adopted it-New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida, Louisiana,
Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia, and Rhode Island.
California has an adequate narcotics law.
But if you live in any state except these ten, hurl yourself into the
battle to have this Act adopted in your state.
In
marked contrast to the apathy of the states regarding local drug addiction is
the aggressive vigilance of the Federal authorities in punishing violations of
the national narcotic laws. The
Federal Narcotics Bureau is doing a splendid job.
With its little handful of 300 agents under Commissioner Anslinger, it is
shouldering big tasks. It must
cooperate with other nations in trying to stamp out the illicit drug, traffic.
It must help repel the tidal wave of smuggled drugs which would inundate
us. It must break up our big interstate drug rings.
Commissioner
Anslinger is recognized abroad as an international authority on the narcotic
question. At Geneva he represented
us so forcefully that reform measures he advocated were adopted for world use by
the 1931 conference. He has kept
the the Federal Narcotics Bureau on its toes, fighting, fighting.
But
the province of his Bureau is stricly Federal, being largely smuggling.
Its authority is also strictly Federal.
It is not authorized to go into your state, run down the local dope
peddlers there, and lock them up. Even
were it equipped to undertake this police work, the law would forbid it.
ONLY
your state can clean up its own dope-addiction problem.
This task it must under-take. If
it is not doing so, find out why. The
reason may be the existence on its statute books of archaic, contradictory
narcotic laws or laws without teeth. Or
else no narcotic laws at all.
The
adoption by your state of the uniform narcotic Drug Act would begin to correct
this entire condition; it would give your state a set of strong narcotic laws
with sharp teeth. Its enforcement
would punish illegal possession of narcotic drugs, thus driving out the
peddlers. It would coordinate state
and Federal enforcement machinery, thereby banishing the present legal twilight
zone between the two, in which drug rings may operate unmolested.
It would prohibit the sale or transfer of narcotic drugs by wholesalers
or manufactures except under state licenses.
And it would absolutely prohibit the production of narcotics of any sort
within the state, except under specific license and strict regulation.
It would include, among narcotic drugs, those prepared synthetically, as
well as those derived from opium and coca leaves.
It
would provide that all violators of the state narcotic law may have all their
licenses---including drivers' licenses---promptly revoked.
Surely no drug addict should ever be at the wheel of an automobile.
Yet great numbers are, rendering all our highways unsafe.
Recently there has been a mounting toll of deaths caused by
addicts running down pedestrians. In
several cases children have been the victims.
Another
invaluable provision of the Act is this: that the unused portion of a narcotic
drug must be returned, by the nurse or others, to the physician when the drug is
no longer required as a medicine by the patient. This is imperative. Enforcing
this provision would abolish at a stroke one of the most subtle methods by which
addiction is spreading today among the upper classes.
Finally,
the Act provides for prosecution of all persons obtaining narcotic drugs by
fraud or deceit, particularly all the use of altered or forged prescriptions.
Cases of forged prescription are legion.
Many addicts become expert forgers, not only for themselves but for
others. Those who do not forge
resort to other tricks to obtain the drugs either for sale or personal use.
The Federal Government is not empowered to reach such cases.
But any state which passes this Act be able to clean that problem up
immediately.
The
machinery necessary for the enforcement of the Uniform State Narcotic Act
already exists in every state. The
cost of making its provisions effective would be practically nil.
Will your state adopt it? Or
will it, perhaps, just slumber on a little longer?
Let
us consider some states which were asleep to this great evil-till rudely
awakened.
South
Carolina, until recently, was one of these.
But she learned her bitter lesson at the cost of many ruined young lives.
It began with the appearance in one of her cities of John X, a ruthless,
aggressive peddler of the most vicious form of narcotic drug, heroin.
He left adults alone. He
made his drive on minors. Some of
these were already addicts, but most of them were clean youths who became
addicted as a result of his despicable operations.
Frantic complaint was made by relatives and friends of his victims.
Could the State of South Carolina prosecute him?
No. The law of that state prohibited only the sale of cocaine.
Shortly afterward South Carolina adopted the uniform Narcotic Act.
And John X fled precipitately, with others of his ugly tribe, to states
that had not passed this law.
John
X settled in Georgia, where he began busily to peddle morphine.
Soon bitter complaints were pouring in.
He was investigated. A large
quantity of morphine was found on him. Could
he be prosecuted? No.
Under the statutes of Georgia the possession of any narcotic drug is no
offence. Having attracted
undesirable attention, however, he decided to go West.
He avoided Kansas, where a fine of $5,000 and seven years’ imprisonment
may be given for the felony of possessing morphine. He also knew better than to choose Montana or Oregon, where
dope peddling, if a second offense, is punished with life imprisonment.
Instead he chose Utah. Dope
peddling in Utah is listed as a mere misdemeanor.
From
the above it is plain what confusion exists today because of our conflicting
state narcotic laws. And lack of
laws.
It
is sad that we Americans often have to be shocked into taking legislative
action. In
Tampa, Florida a boy killed his father, mother, sister, and brother.
When questioned afterward, all he could remember of the experience was
that he had been smoking marijuana cigarettes all day.
[Marijuana is the name in the western world for the drug derived from
Indian hemp. It is identical with the oriental drug, hashish.
It is deadly in its narcotic effect.]
After the quadruple murder, a shocked Florida pushed the Uniform Narcotic
Act through at once.
As
state after state adopts this Act, the remaining states will thus inevitably
become happy hunting grounds for fleeing dope addicts and peddlers.
This is an alarming prospect. Surely
it alone is reason enough why every state should pass this Act without delay.
Selfishly, as a matter of self-protection, every state will to pass it
eventually!
An
addict is always a plague spot in a community.
He is a potential creator of other addicts. It is his passion to make as many addicts as he can.
We used to think of drug addiction as confined largely to the
underworld--- as being far removed from our own social groups, our homes and
firesides. Whether this was true in
the past, I can not say. Today it
is pitifully untrue.
All
social classes are infiltrated with drug addiction. It is found everywhere---among the high and the low, the rich
and the poor, the educated and the illiterate, the inefficient and the
brilliant, the formerly strong and the naturally weak.
We find it among bankers, lawyers, and doctors; business men, housewives,
and artists; among the idle wealthy, as well as among professional crooks. We
find it among college students and among high-school boys and girls!
No
class of society is immune, no section of the country.
It is the bitter problem of us all!
Any
doubt of this in my mind was dispelled by a recent visit to the drug-disposal
room in the Treasury Department in Washington.
In this room seized narcotics are dumped for analysis and final disposal.
The floor, desks, tables, shelves were heaped with an assortment of
containers used for smuggling.
Here
were costly cameras, fountain pens, umbrella
handles, expensive garments with false linings, golf clubs, gold pencils, silver
jewel boxes, gold watch charms, dainty women's slippers, and men's high-priced
shoes with hollowed heels---and an assortment of hollowed-out volumes of prose
and poetry. All these objects
contained "decks" or vials or cans of narcotics.
I shall never forget the richly tooled volume of Tennyson which,
completely hollowed-cut, contained a large flask of morphine.
From these the exhibits graded down, through all social strata, to the
opium-smoking outfits of the poorer Chinese, and the playing cards, pasted
together with a smear of opium inside, of the Southern darkies.
All
about, in boxes and pack-ages, were the seized narcotics of the illicit
manufacturers, the traders, and the big smugglers. These included heroin; opium, both raw and smoking; chalklike
morphine cubes; and glittering white cocaine crystals.
Everywhere were hypodermic outfits.
Glittering, expensive ones, crude homemade ones. The room was a sickening
sight---from which I fled.
I
SOUGHT out Doctor Treadway to put three questions to him: How do people become
addicts? How many doses are
required? What hope of cure is
there?
Dr.
Treadway is not only a distinguished national, but an international authority on
drug addiction. He is Chief of the
Mental Hygiene Division of the Public Health Service. In reply to my first question, he said.
“More
than one-half of all present-day addiction is due to association with addicts.
But addiction can result from doctors prescriptions.
From too-long continued use of narcotics after accident or illness. From ignorant self-medication.
From desire for relief during emotional stress or overwork.
From bravado or love of adventure in youth.
From morbid curiosity. Or
from the use of a narcotic ‘pick-me-up’ the morning after.”
He
cited the case of Robert, a boy of fine family, who had gone to a stag dinner
with some older men. He had become
drunk and had been taken to the apartment of one of the men to sleep it off. He awoke ill and unable to go to work. He dared not lose his position, which was with one of his
father's friends.
The
man whose guest he was merely laughed at him.
"I'll have you on your feet in a jiffy,” he promised.
This
man was a confirmed addict. He gave
the boy a shot of dope.
Robert
was the psycho-neurotic type with whom one dose is sufficient to create an
appetite. In a few days he
approached this man and asked that he be given the stuff again. Like most addicts, the man enjoyed making an addict, and he
kept Robert supplied with the drug. The
boy became a confirmed addict. His
heartbroken parents have spent a small fortune on his case.
He has never been cured.
I
put my second question to Dr. Treadway. "How
many doses are usually required to make an addict?"
"It
all depends," he replied. "Some
addicts were emotionally normal people to begin with. It requires repeated doses
to make addicts of these. On the other hand, many addicts were somewhat neurotic in the
first place. They were
shell-shocked victims of civilization, fed up with the tedium of life, and in
conflict with themselves. All such
are prone to embrace drugs at the first opportunity.
And one dose may so comfort a person of this type as to create a desire
to renew the experience. Constitutional
make-up is the underlying factor in drug addiction."
"What
are the chances of cure?" I demanded.
He looked sad, thoughtful. "It
is an individual matter. A cure usually takes from a year to five years, or
longer. However, so little effort
is being made in this country to
cure addiction that we have no reliable statistics.
The Federal Government has just authorized two institutions designed to
cure addiction among Federal prisoners. One
of them, at Lexington, Kentucky, will be opened this spring.
While it will accommodate only a thousand addicts, it will give us a
basis for some valuable scientific studies of addiction cure.
“At
Spadra, California," he added thoughtfully, "is a modern state
institution which is devoting itself exclusively to the cure of addiction.
A cure in seventeen percent of cases is reported to be claimed for this
institution.”
Only
seventeen percent! My throat
contacted with pity. Wholesale
cure, then, is not the most hopeful way out of the problem for the nation, for
society.
Prevention!
That is the way out. And
prevention must begin always in the home. By
avoidance of doped remedies. By
warning youth about the pitfalls in the world.
I
thought of the old household remedies so ignorantly, tenderly administered by
our grandmothers and mothers. Such
things as paregoric, once Mother’s first aid, but now listed
"poison." And the old
headache remedies containing luminal and barbitol and veronal.
And the doped soothing syrups.
Later
that same morning I discussing all this with Mrs. Isabelle Ahearn O’Neill,
special contact woman between the Federal Narcotics Bureau and the state
Governors, Federal District Judges, and United States District Attorneys of the
entire country. She is an advocate
of the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act.
"This
Act," she told me soberly, "if it merely reduced the indiscriminate
use of paregoric for baby’s every ill, would be of vital importance.
But of course it will do far more. It
will make it really possible for the first time for Federal and state
governments to cooperate in protecting the American home from the menace of drug
addiction.
"The
soothing syrup evil,” she added, is widespread. “This is because the various states do not require that
manufacturers of narcotics be licensed. Recently
in a Massachusetts city a man opened an office and engaged an ignorant woman to
dispense soothing syrup containing acetate morphine, for babies.
From a large vat this woman ladled out doses of the compound to any
mother for any purpose. This
horrifying condition would be impossible under the Uniform Drug Act, for the man
would have to be licensed and would therefore he unable to carry out such a
scheme. The ladling out of that
dope created a condition soon observed in the schools.
It was learned the children were being given this soothing syrup to
relieve incipient colds, stomach ache, toothache----anything.
A clean-up followed. But the
parents of those doped children had a serious problem of cure on their
hands."
MRS.
O'NEILL fell suddenly, silent, obviously absorbed in deeply anxious
thought. Presently she leaned she
leaned forward earnestly.
"But
by far the gravest danger to our young people from any narcotic drug." she
said, "is from marijuana. Warn
all parents and educators that there is an increasing addiction to marijuana in
this country; that in some instances it has invaded the colleges and high
schools. It is also being used more and more by young people in our
larger cities."
Marijuana first exhilarates
aid releases the addict from all dictates of conscience or emotional restraint;
it also excites sexually. Next
follows a stage of dullness, melancholia, and stupor. Continued use of it leads
to insanity.
Marijuana is most
commonly used in the form of cigarettes, sometimes called Mexican cigarettes,
although their contents are not tobacco. They
are made of the dry, pulverized flower of the Indian hemp.
There is some smuggling of the drug from Mexico, and some interstate
traffic in the Rocky Mountain region.
"How
do these marijuana peddlers reach the children?" I asked.
"They loiter near the schools, perhaps
selling toys or candy, or just joking with the children and making friends with
them. They do anything to gain the
children's confidence. Later they
abuse this confidence by giving some of the cigarettes away free; afterward they
charge for them. These peddlers are
a low, unscrupulous type, the hirelings of some one higher up.
Their job is to spread the drug throughout the country, creating an
appetite and a market.
“What
is the solution of the problem, Mrs. O’Neill?”
“Eternal
vigilance on the part of all parents and educators," she urged, "and
adoption of the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act in all states.
This Act provides a drastic punishment for the traffic in marijuana."
NOW,
just one more word of warning! Warning
for our boys and girls, our young men and women.
The
methods of selling narcotics are every day becoming more subtle, more
respectable in outward appearance. Most
of the old dope dens are gone. They
have been replaced in our large cities by luxurious apartments in fine
neighborhoods. One can walk into
one of these, buy the drug, and walk out. Many
rooming houses and hotels also sell it. As
do some pool rooms and restaurants.
Today
the dope peddler is not likely to be the furtive-eyed, emaciated man lurking
about dingy streets. That type
still exists. But the dope peddler
in your town may live on your street, in that attractive house you have admired
so often. And he will not be a
pitiful, shrunken object in rags. The
big peddler never touches the stuff himself or lets any one close to him touch
it. He is as cold-blooded as a
snake. He is apt to be well
dressed, well-fed, and to have a well-nourished, well-dressed family cooperating
with him in his hideous trade.
Here
is an instance of this which recently shocked even the experience-hardened
agents of the United States Narcotics Bureau.
The ring consisted of one family, the head of it being a mother!
This woman's older son was arrested with fifty ounces of morphine.
He was an interstate peddler. He
Was sentenced to six years in the penitentiary.
Three months later his wife was arrested for selling morphine and was
sentenced to three years in the Alderson, West Virginia, Reformatory for Women.
Four months later his mother was arrested and sent to Alderson for
selling morphine. In the same month
another son, 19, and two daughters, 15 and 13, were arrested separately for
selling morphine for their mother, and all were put on probation for five years.
These
people had an attractive home and handsome car. They were of good stock and respectable standing in the
community. They were well educated.
They presented every appearance of good breeding.
Yet the whole family, including even the thirteen-year old child, were in
the business of selling habit forming drugs, chiefly to minors.
Drug
addiction is here---all about us like an epidemic. Not only in the slums, but along the boulevards and in the
drawing room. The slimy net drawn
up recently in Federal raids was asquirm with the purveyors of this living
death.
Addiction is a menace to every, decent American
family. It is a menace to your
family. Why wait until some
horrific thing occurs in your neighborhood---your home---before you hurl
yourselves into the fight to drive this vice out of your state? Why not throw around the young people of your family, your
community, the protection afforded by the provisions of the Uniform State
Narcotic Drug Act?
I
implore you, demand that your State Legislatures adopt this Act now!
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