Taking Cocaine.

Otago Witness, Issue 2905, 17 November 1909, Page 74

Taking Cocaine.

' The habit of talking cocaine is fearfully on the increase, and 'if doctors do not do i , t-omerhing ohortly it will become a plague, f Head the following extract, and beware 1 ■ of the very beginning of the mischief: — > "Doctors should not give prescriptions for ' cocaine. Wherever it seems necessary to | employ the drug in ointment, suppositories, ' , snuffs, or sprays, fch-ay should be given 5 to the patient by the doctor himself. To s throw the handling of these powerful habitforming remedies into the hands of the druggists exclusively is a. seiious mlsfcaka. 1 ; Laws canno.t stop the cocaine habit. If ' people know about the drug, get the habit. 1 ' and want it, they will manage to get it ' somehow. The doctor is the only man who > can interpose- successfully. If he feels his ' . responsibility in the matter and discharges » his duty to his pati-snt3 he can stop the : abuse of this drug. The effects of cocaine, ■ while delightfully exhilarating, aio so evans ' escent that tha mdiv dun! soon passes all ' bounds in its u%e. Mental a-nd physical ruin, ( if not actual death, are certain result; if the habit is continued. Thci-3 are phys'cians who employ cocaine sprays very freely and almost as a routine msasuro to clear the j nose and subdue irritation in th-a thToafc ' while at work in the&B oavities. Many ' parsons frequent their rooms jusr. for the ! relief, stimulation, and temporary enjoy- ' S ment tba spray affords. We do not sup- • j pes© that the spray is employed to attract ) and hold patients. Nevertheless, that is " the effect of the practice. Doctors should - i not employ cocaine at all except where it -t is absolutely necessary. "Its use should > • practically be restricted to the production >: of local anaesthesia. Where its use rmi3t *1 be entrusted to the patien 1 surround it by - ' every possible safeguard. Do not let him I know what it is. Only give him a small

quantity,, ready prepared, and. discontinue it as soon 'as practicable."