COCAINE CRAZE IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 122, 17 February 1919, Page 6

COCAINE CRAZE IN ENGLAND

TERRIBLE INCREASE IN THIS MUG HABIT.

?, ( ffi .drinking has declined during :.- the last four years, the drug habit Has .. enormously increased. A w-ell-known of alSh'lf lh ' te es tablished foi-tte cTe or a cohohc cases reports (sta»<i tlm •^»;tha M p^hela s .. in/m.\ of their, patients have'boon victims ~,pt- cocaine, opium, and morphiu" "The , «avmg and its consequences "re much ; more terrible in the case of drugs tt«„ in; alcoholic patients/' said a docto i ■?m«m-'dm® tj,e;iast'six.months, fa :'"'£?? ha< D ! a "y patients' who w-re rconhrmed drug.-Victiml; and the lis "is ; .growing daily. Infect our accommociu,ta,dpes not,,,equa.L .the.demands. We . ,ha%e, officers who', have. contracted the W-ffWrfJabit "nder treatment in hoso\P.l^.l^' i i . )le .,s«ff«'.ers can.be cured if the < habit : has no been allowed to mn 'un.V.checked :,to,o_ long, .In',the majority of , tm, said a doctor who :s an /nithority ,; diseases,-."but it did not be-,-iJ?%- a social danger..in Mhis country ■ - until the war. Before 1911 drug-takim* : was confined to the ultra-artistic °ect and a lew of the leisured classes, but with the arrival of colonial and • 'American habit spread until it became a cult. Doctors have known of this danger for a long time'and they have ■tried to combat, it-ivith sosial pressure andjhome treatment, but the results have ™ T satisfactory. In women ■ ■•patients the effdets of habitual indulgence are .hysteria and melancholia, the tendency is intense depression and hallucination together .with physical collapse." ■ Doctors, heads of-institutions, and so■cial workers, agree .that "doing" is not , a deliberate vice, Bather it is a fashionable habit,- an:, artificial-'- WM pro(]uct which will, disappear with the return of more normal conditions. It is a vice of .■K?-°-,?™i- c ' not aLn °it "f the normal. ■■■iMsn,,-said. a specialist, "<lo not as a .Ttile take-to drugs unless there is a hereditary influence, but women we more temperamentally attracted. .:;.." Undoubtedly, drug-taking is increasing ~ especially '.among women .f a bHily- ' strung temperament," said'another physician, who has specialised in cases of nervous breakdown." The effects of opium "Jieroin, and morphia, arc much the same After, a few doses the, results are to •■: create a- most brilliant imagination-won-derful, conversation and sparkling wit. This applies, however, only to chronic drug-takers, - The condition may 'ast for several hours, .prowsiness and sleep follow. Then comes intense depression and the craving for more of the stimulating drug. People will do unheard-of things to get hold of it. I had one patient who was watched by three nurses and who vet managed to get heroin smuggled in ■by a servant. Each time the doso has to be made bigger, and it takes longer to act. Ultimately the doses have to be so big that they ovcrconio the respiration and the'patient dies." . yPertiaps the most expensive of. the vices," was a chemist's description of the drug habit. "A confirmed 'dope' victim needs-a big bank balance to gratify the. •persistent craving for the 'devil's tabloids,' and that is why drugging will affect a large section of the population. A person afflicted with an abnormally dilated pupil, known as the •'cocaine eye,' or by. the nervous gesture called the 'morphine twitch,' usually has a large income, as only tho well-to-do can bear the financial drain. Most of the drugs sold to 'dope fiends' are smuggled;" Anything from m to £30 'is charged for an ounce of cocaine.' Opium is cheaper, an ounce being obtainable foi .£5, but the cost varies with tho mental condition and.social standing (f tho victim."

A Customs official declared that the authorities are alive to tho danger of drug smuggling,'but, lie said, "detection is extremely difficult. Indiscriminate smuggling-by'sailors can be dealt wirn, but a. few clever rogues, perceiving large profits in the growing demands, can organise an illicit trade not with impu.n- ---•' lty but with some prospects of success. The popular' impression that all the opium consumed in Lo'idon comos from ; Limehouse Causeway is not credited in the .Customs. There is only a smaiVcommunity of Chinese in the neighbourhood of the West India Dock Road, and the police know more of that locality than the public give them' credit for. More ,'sp'btle minds than those possessed, by the •average'ship's .sailors, firemen, :.nd stewards" are/responsible for tho continuance of the traffic. The greater ihe profit the rabre'/iiigeiiiou.s the schemers, is jur experience./and the "profit in the'illegal We of drugs must be enormous. Where , fne"wily Oriental make a. ,£5 lotu tl"> clever and unscrupulous white man will ret ten-times as. much."