CASTOR OIL FOR DRUNKENNESS

Northern Advocate, 1 December 1936, Page 6

CASTOR OIL FOR DRUNKENNESS

The remedy for drunkenness in Spokane, Washington, is the application of half-a-pint of castor oil. The local judge who hit upon this ingenious method of making the punishment fit the crime is evidently endowed with a bright sense of humour. The law demands that an offender be given the choice of the castor oil or imprisonment. Most, it should be imagined, would choose the lesser stigma, of prison. How much more humiliating to an erring adult for him to lie called upon to “take his medicine,” especially if the draughts were administered in public court in the presence of spectators. In no facetious manner the idea is commended to the Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Transport, for incorporation in his campaign for securing greater safety on the j roads. Faced with the threat of! the castor oil bottle, a motorist would think seriously before drinking to excess. A great deal is to be said for the old idea of the stocks, whereby those who offended against the public wellbeing, were exposed to the ridicule of their fellows. In attempting to secure the fullest possible! return for labour without offering the incentive of individual pecuniary reward, Russia adopted somewhat similar methods. Caricatures of intoxicated workmen who had absented themselves from their jobs were displayed in prominent places in factories and offices, so that the fellow employees of the culprits might laugh at and despise them. It was Mussolini and his Fascists who

found the modern use for castor oil, but they employed it more as a weapon of attack, than as a corrective for the ills of the body politic. Given under proper supervision, castor oil would be unequalled as a deterrent for minor sins. Viewed from another angle, the administration of half-a-pint of the soothing and healthgiving liquid to inebriated persons, would assist them in recovering. from the after-effects of over-indulgence, and make them fitter and better citizens, thus reducing claims on hospital boards and the Government. Of course, there are some palates to which castor oil would be a confection rather than corrective; some not as other men, no doubt, would jack the spoon. To them the desired personal discomfort, sense ° shame and guilt could he induced hy the public administration ox beakers of quinine, or of potiqns of easeara. _______