"DRUG TAKERS IN AMERICA."

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16558, 25 June 1919, Page 7

"DRUG TAKERS IN AMERICA."

TO THX EDITOR OT "THE PRESS." Sir, —A favourite tilt at Prohibition id to change it with fostering the habit of taking drugs. Somo encouragement ; is given to that idea by a statement ; said to have been made by Dr. Cope- ' land, tho Health Commissioner for New J, York, in the article under the abovo : heading, which you publish in to-day's : issue of "The Press." It is there stat- ; ed that "Dr. Copeland attributes the i drug curse in great measure to tho inability of those accustomed to stimu- : lants to procure, whisky." He coos on to say that "there are to-day between 200,000 and 300*000 druc takers in Now York, and that the metropolis is_ facing the gravest narcotic menace in its.history.' All this is no doubt Badly true, but, in view of Dr. Copeland'B statement as to the main cause of it, tho amazing thing is that this is said of a city in which up to the present it has been possible for a man to get as much ■whisky as he wants. It is certainly not Prohibition that has drivon these New Yorkers to drugs, for tho simple reason that the day of 'Prohibition for that city will not come until the first of July. So that Dr. Copeland is a little too previous in blaming the dope habit on whisky. A statement similar to that niado by Dr. Copeland was made not long' since in Melbourne by Father Locking ton. Mr T. E. Varley, of Melbourne, cabled to the Govornor and oxGovernor of Kansas, asking if it were true that Prohibition increases the drug habit. . The cabled reply was, "Records in Kansas and throughout tho country show that Prohibition decreases the drug- habit. Liquor creates desiro for drugs." According to Representative Henry T. Rainey, of Illinois, chairman of the committee appointed by tho Treasury Department to investigate tho use of narcotic "dope fiends" are increasing in numbers faster in wet than :in dry cities. There are in the United .States 1,500,000 drug addicts, but tho • greatest increase in tho uso of such narI cotics has been in such wot cities as Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. This drug bogey as a scare to frighten people from Prohibition's played out in the light of testimoniessuch as these. —Yours eto^. J. Wll <T<T A'MS. June 23rd.