DRUGS IN AMERICA

Evening Star, Issue 19064, 6 October 1925, Page 4

DRUGS IN AMERICA

ADDRESS BY DR HERRINGTON. In the course of his address at His Majesty’s Theatre on Sunday evening Dr Herrington challenged the oft-re-peated statement that tho taking of drugs had increased since the United States of America adopted tho policy of Prohibition, Ho quoted from Reprint No. 924 from the official public health reports by Kolb and Du Mez, dated May 23, 1924, and bearing the imprint of tho Treasury Department. U.S.A., to prove that the number or drug addicts in the United States has been steadily decreasing since 1900, and continues to decrease. Jfcr Herrington said that he approached the liquor problem from the standpoint of coiumonseuse, which was the birthright of every intelligent person. He believed in the prohibition of intoxicating liquors for the same reason that he believed in the prohibition of opium, cocaine, and other things which were not beneficial to the community. It was a fallacy to suppose that a person should take a small quantity of the various kinds of intoxicants in order to show that he was temperate in his habits. Alcohol was unnecessary and unprofitable to everybody except the people who made money out of it. As for temperance, tho best kind was abstinence so far as intoxicants and narcotics of every description were concerned. Common-sense found a voice in some well-known and homely sayings, which he would commend to the consideration of all voters on the liquor question, such as “ Experience teaches,” “Safety first,” and “Prevention is better than cure.” Experience gave only too abundant evidence of tho terrible effects of alcoholic indulgence in private life and in social organisation. During the war the Mother Country placarded “ Safety first ” on public conveyances and hoardings; hut it was a pity that the authorities did not go further than they did in grappling with the drink evil. As it was, they introduced many stages of Prohibition, with a corresponding improvement in the habits of tho people and tho prospects of victory. He would venture to say that the greater the measure of absolute Prohibition in intoxicating beverages the greater would be the progress of any and every country. Passing on to speak of the third adage. “Prevention is better than euro, he pointed out that this was the motto of public heatlh to-day. Medical science was aiming to bo more preventive than therapeutic; that was to say, it was seeking to keep people in health rather than to makejhem better when they became ill. And the policy of prohibition of in toxica ids was not only in lino with preventive medicine, it was the only consistent policy. The experience of America, despite the desperate efforts of the world’s liquor trades to break up the nforcoment of Prohibition, showd that there were immense improvements in the health, wealth, and conduct of tho people; ami Dr Herrington quoted from official statistics in support of this position. Pauperism, prostitution, crime, drunkenness, deaths from alcoholism, < the mortality rate, including a surprising drop in tuberculosis, all showed diminution under Prohibition. He concluded by appealing to New Zealanders to vote liquor out and lot the dominion lead the world in establishing tho most perfect form of prohibition of intoxicants.