Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1931 TRADE IN DANGEROUS DRUGS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 August 1931, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1931 TRADE IN DANGEROUS DRUGS

THOSE who think that the Law in this country is too strict in relation to,, the sale of narcotic drugs, which a chemist

is debarred from selling, except in com-

pliance with a doctor’s prescription, should read a book entitled “Dangerous Drugs,” by Colonel Arthur Woods, Police Commissioner of New York and assessor to the League of, Nations’ Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium

and other Dangerous Drugs. This authority says: The smoking or eating of opium will produce ill effects upon the human body but in most cases the deterioration is slow. With morphine or heroin the attack upon mentality and physique may be swift, strong, and ruthless, and the drug cocaine, 100 times moro efficient than the coca leaf, cun transform its victim into a quivering, hunted wild beast in a few months.

In conformity with the terms of their Covenant, the governments which belong to the League of Nations have agreed to do their utmost to discourage the trade in narcotics. Article 23 of the League’s Covenant reads in part as follows: Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of the international con. ventions existing or hereafter to be agreed upon, the members of the League . . . (c) will intrust the League with general supervision over the execution of armaments with regard to . . . the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs. . . .

The United States of America, it may bo stated, take a great interest in the international movement against the, unrestricted traffic in narcotic drugs, although unfortunately Congress refused to sign the League’s Covenant. Other nations there are which are neither members of the League nor appear anxious to discourage the traffic in narcotic drugs. Such nations as Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the U.S.A., and others may honestly seek to discourage the noxious trade, but others do not. For instance, we learn from the author whom we have quoted that in the year 1928 a single Swiss firm manufactured 4,349 kilograms of heroin, which is sufficient to supply “the legitimate needs of the whole world for nearly three years.” In the year named a Dutch wholesale firm sold to the dangerous, illicit drug-trade three and a half tons of heroin and morphine, which had been manufactured illegally, so it was said, in Switzerland, Germany, and France. It is extremely difficult to stamp out this illicit trade, because the profits are so enormous, and the demand so great in certain countries. The Chinese, for instance, continue to use large quantities of opium, though their Government has complained successfully against importations from other countries. Dr. Morrison, the well-known authority on China, declared in his wellknown book that the average Chinaman appeared to be able to take opium habitually without any very apparent ill effects. But we learn from reliable sources that the Egyptians as a race are undermining their strength through the use of narcotic drugs, including opium, heroin, morphia, and cocaine. Not long since it was reported that the use of noxious drugs was prevalent in Moscow, where even young children, of the street-arab variety, were commonly found among the addicts. When it is asked why such a harmful traffic flourishes, in spite of the League of Nations’ attempt to suppress it, the answer we receive is:

(1) Certain nations have not been bound by the certificate . system or have not strictly carried it out; (2) certain nations have been very lenient with traffickers breaking their own laws or those of other nations.

Colonel Woods brings evidence to show that in respect of the abuses referred to, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland are the greatest sinners against the world, in that they supply the illegal trade with, the drugs whose sale the League of Nations desires to restrict rigidly. An attempt was made at Geneva last May to limit the manufacture of narcotic drugs to the amouftt which should supply the legitimate requirements of the doctors and scientists of the world: So it will easily be understood that when the average, normal New Zealander seeks to buy an ordinary patent medicine, which in the past “has always done him good,” but which nevertheless contains—perhaps unknown to him—some form of narcotic dreg, he is liable to be told that it cannot be supplied except under a doctor’s prescription. This rigid enforcement of the Law is net the result of tyrannous government, but exists because of the terrible ravages which the use of naicotic drugs has made in countries where restriction is either non-existent or easily evaded.