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The Online Reefer Madness Teaching Museum
Pacific Coast Journal of Nursing:
March
1940 Vol. 36, No. 3 - pp 145-147
Division of Narcotic Enforcement -
State of California By L.R. Holmes
"The
addict, the user of narcotics, is recognized as a patient, a sick person, rather
than as a criminal." This philosophy of the State Division of Narcotic
Enforcement makes the work of this Division of especial interest to nurses.
The Assistant Chief, L. Raymond Holmes, has written this article so that
nurses may have more information a6out the work of the Division. This is the
first of a series of articles on the functions of the various State departments.
The Division of
Narcotic Enforcement was established by the California Legislature in 1927 to
enforce the State Narcotic Act. It
has functioned effectively during these years and has curbed the menace of
illicit narcotics by, crushing many of the narcotic rings and the opium dens
which flourished throughout the state in earlier times.
At the present time the
Division is some-what enlarging and broadening the scope of its activities.
It was the desire of
Governor Culbert L. Olson that efforts be made to reach the underlying causes of
the narcotic evil, that something be done to prevent people falling into the
clutches of this traffic, and that attempts be made to rehabilitate the victims
of it and restore them to society. To
that end the Governor appointed, at the beginning of his term of office, as
Chief of the Division, Paul E. Madden---a
man with many years' successful experience in prosecution and law enforcement
work coupled with broad humanitarian principles and a profound understanding of
the underlying causes of crime in its various forms.
Under his direction the
Division is going beyond the enforcement merely of the State Narcotic Act of
1929 and the placing of violators in prison in accordance with the letter of
that law. The spirit of the State's
laws is more definitely recognized, as are the motives and causes of law
violations.
The
addict, the user of narcotics, is recognized as a patient, a sick person, rather
than as a criminal. With that in
mind, the Division, under the California Narcotic Rehabilitation Act of 1927, is
taking the initiative in getting addicts committed to narcotic hospitals. We are trying to get the judges of our courts to make a
distinction between the real criminal, the peddler of illicit narcotics, and his
victim, the addict, who is physically and mentally Ill.
This is often a
difficult task. Judges are prone to
treat a man who has violated the law the same whether he has been convicted as a
peddler or as a user of narcotics, and to think that it is cheaper for the
taxpayer to send an addict to the county jail for three or six months than to
send him to the State Narcotic Hospital for eight
months, the minimum time required to attain a cure.
But it is not cheaper for the taxpayers in the long run, for the record
of many addicts is that they are in and out of the jails every few weeks or few
months for perhaps twenty or thirty years.
The desperate necessity of obtaining the drug drives almost all addicts
to a life of crime---shoplifting, burglary, forger), etc.---after it has
destroyed their capacity to earn an honest living.
No effort should be spared, for that reason, to
restore an addict to society, especially in the cases involving young
people.
In
order to save as many as possible of these comparatively young people---young in
years and new in their addiction---the Division doubled the population in the
State Narcotic Hospital at Spadra during the first few months of the incumbency
of the present administration of this department of the State government.
These addicts come out of the Narcotic Hospital apparently completely
recovered. They have regained their
color, they have put on weight, they feel fine, happy, and confident that they
will never touch "dope" again.
A
study of the fate of these people after they have been dismissed as cured offers
suggestions for additional means necessary for society to undertake in order to
solve the narcotic problem. For
invariably those who drift back to their old associates---narcotic addicts and
peddlers---go back to the use of the drug.
Those who stay away from it permanently, on the other hand, nearly always
have attained some vital interest in life---religion, some reform movement,
rearing of a family, or the like---which has helped them master the habit by
keeping constructively occupied, physically and mentally.
Society
should provide for the permanent rehabilitation of these victims of the narcotic
traffic after they are cured. Above
all the should be given an opportunity to earn a livelihood and engage in some
work in which they can take an interest away from the underworld and criminal
elements. Those who then, even
under favorable circumstances, return to the use of narcotics should be confined
to a State narcotic farm for a term of years or in extreme cases perhaps for
life. Here they could be put to
work to provide partly or wholly for their own maintenance.
Thus could be removed from society and the taxpayers the burden of
supporting these addicts, who usually spend about half their time in the jails
of the State and the rest engaged in their careers of crime necessary to attain
the means with which to satisfy their addiction.
It
is to be hoped that the State will soon provide these means suggested ill
dealing with the victims of illicit narcotics, as in this way a major portion of
the market for the drug would also be removed from the real criminals, the
peddlers, which should compel them to seek some other means of a livelihood.
Those who then persist in this most depraved method of making money by
spreading the worst form of human misery and making new addicts to replace those
restored to society-these real fiends in human form certainly should be placed
out of harm's way permanently. The
damage done by these criminals is worse than murder, and the law should be so
amended that the life sentence could be imposed in cases of repeated offenses as
well as making it mandatory upon the judges to impose such sentences upon
repeated convictions.
Most
strict and rigorous enforcement of the narcotic laws is justified and necessary
when we consider the havoc brought about by these drugs.
Their effects are not dealt with here, as the writer believes that most
of the readers of this article are acquainted with the progressive physical and
mental deterioration and degradation which result from their habitual use. As part of the educational and preventive work done, we have
issued a treatise or, the nature and effects of narcotics which will be mailed
to anyone on request addressed to the Narcotic Division, State Building, San
Francisco.
The
general effects of the sedative narcotics--opium and its derivatives, morphine,
heroin, etc.---are pretty generally known.
There seems to be some uncertainty, however, with reference to the effect
of their use upon posterity. Doctors
and nurses who have been placed ill positions where they should know tell us
that these narcotics usually cause sterility in women.
When occasionally a woman addict gives birth to a child, such offspring
shows all the symptoms of addiction, apparently has the pains of the withdrawal
period, and usually dies within a few days after birth. Sometimes the use of morphine will save such an infant's
life---just as the use must be tapered off in the case of the confirmed
addict---but the child at best will be weak and susceptible to disease.
The writer would like to hear from any reader of this article who might
have had occasion to observe such cases or had experience along this line.
An
important phase of the Division's work pertains to the use and handling of tile
narcotic drugs by doctors, pharmacists, and hospitals.
As long as the law is not violated, we are not, of course, in a position
to tell doctors how to run their business.
But when doctors report a considerable number of prescriptions of
narcotics for acute alcoholism or some variation of the common cold we feel that
such doctors are violating, if not the letter, certainly tile spirit of the law.
We feel that great care and caution should be exercised by
these professional men in order to prevent addiction being caused by their use
of these drugs, and the Division has the whole-hearted cooperation of the State
Medical Board and the bulk of the members of the profession who appear to be
using the most potent narcotics only in the most painful conditions, in
incurable diseases, and as a rule not after twenty-four to forty-eight hours
after an operation.
A
recent survey by the Division of some of the hospitals in the State revealed a
most efficient method of keeping records of narcotics, and a most commendable
policy in the administration and dispensation of them, in vogue at the San
Francisco County Hospital. The use
of morphine in this institution has been substantially decreased, about 25 per
cent, in the past few years. The
policy is to substitute codeine, the mildest opium alkaloid, and to use morphine
in extreme cases only.
Another
important job of the Division is to curb and stamp out our newest and domestic
narcotic menace, marihuana---obtained from the
leaves and flowers of Cannabis Sativa, commonly
known as Indian hemp. In recent
years this plant, without the mass of the people knowing it, has spread all over
this country. On the Pacific Coast
is has frequently been found growing in gardens, even on the property of police
officers, judges, clergymen, and religious institutions.
Last summer the Division mailed literature and posters---describing the
plant, showing pictures of it, and stating its effects-to every police chief and
sheriff's office in the state.
Marihuana,
like cocaine, is an excitatnt drug.
The use of it will render a person definitely insane while under its
influence. Regardless of his good
moral character when normal, he is capable of the most revolting acts of
violence, and will not have the slightest idea of what he has done when the
effect of the drug has worn off. Marihuana
is a big subject in itself, and space does not permit going into it here.
The Division has issued a treatise on it which has been referred to by Mr.
H. J. Anslinger---for many years United States Commissioner of Narcotics
and perhaps the greatest authority in this country on the subject-as "the
best I have seen along this fine." This
bulletin will be mailed to anyone on request.
In its work to stamp out the menace of illicit narcotics,
the Division invites the aid of every citizen.
Any incident that may in any way relate to this traffic should be
reported to the State Narcotic Division, State
Building, San Francisco, UNderhill 8700.
Any information given us will be held strictly confidential as far as
your identity is concerned.
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