THE DRUG MENACE.

Grey River Argus, 24 January 1927, Page 7

THE DRUG MENACE.

NOT SERIOUS IN DOMINION. POISONS ACT DEFECTIVE Drug; addicts are still rare in New Zealand, and the prospect of having to establish, as in one Australian State a special branch of the police to deal with the menace is very far removed. The reason is that New Zealand '.s farther away from East than are Australia and other countries where drugtaking has gained a hold. Nor is tin. country inflicted with more than very occasional visits from traffickers m drugs.

It is net oft.’n that ' rime is the direct result of the amount of drug-taking that does occur. The store told in the restricted instances of the practice is rather the tragedy of brilliant career’ turned rapidly on the dawngrade, or a life of profligacy culminating in a habit for which earlier depravities hav • prepared the way. There is much to pile, but nothing for the community to fear.

Allied to the question, however, is a consideration which an Auckland ehem ish promi in the councils of the Pharmacy Board suggests is of vital importance. AVhile it is a fact that the sale of drugs and certain other poisons stocked bv chemists is under minute supervision, he thinks it is anomalous that such puis as arsenic may be obtained from a seedsman with practically no restriction. “AV e do not wish io'interfere in the sale of agricultral or horticultural poisons,” he said, “but it is our opinion that no man who does not possess a proper knowledge of poisons should be allowed to sell them except in the form in which they are re reived from the original supplier. That such people should be able to pare them up just as they like is foolish and dangerous.

“I knew a country store where bags of arsenic, sugar, and baking soda stand side by side. It is only a piece of luck that the customer who asks for sugar or baking soda does not sometimes get arsenic instead. Our Poisons Act is fourty years behind the times, and it might as well be brought up-to-date before, instead of after, some tragedy has shown the vital necessity for 3 move. ’ ’