NURSES AND DRUGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1010, 28 June 1930, Page 10

NURSES AND DRUGS

SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS BY POLICE COURT CASE AT GISBORNE Special to THE SUN GISBORNE, Today. As almost every nurse in New Zealand carries morphine, and that although it was not suggested that all of them are addicted to the drug-tak-ing, a search would reveal comparatively large supplies in their possession, was a statement made in the Police Court when a nurse, whose name was suppressed, pleaded guilty to two charges of having in her possession tablets of morphine sulphate. Senior-Sergeant Wade said that defendant was employed at a private hospital, at which her duties were very heavy. She felt that she was “slipping” physically, and could not keep up with the work, with the result that she resorted to the drug. She became ill with neuralgia and was taken to hospital. Among her belongings were three tablets and while she was in hospital a further supply of 12 tablets arrived for her. “The police made inquires.” said the senior-sergeant, “in the belief that possibly there was a depot in New Zealand supplying people with drugs, but 1 can say now that that is not the case. Defendant’s sister is being supplied wit hthis particular drug under a doctor’s prescription, and he has been sending some of the drug to defendant. I am told that practically every nurse in New Zealand carries supplies of this drug, though it is an offence to do so. Of course, they are not all addicted to it, but if the effects of the majority of nurses, particularly those attending outside cases, were searched, I have no doubt bigger supplies of the drug would be found than those defendant had in her possession. The Legislature evidently regards this is a serious offence, for the maximum penalty is £100.”

Defendant said she would have been unable to carry on her work if she had not taken the drug. “The habit is a pernicious and injurious one,” said the magistrate. “You must have known that the relief afforded, if relief it is, is only temporary, and that the more you take of it the less chance you have of breaking yourself of the habit. At the same time I am sure this will be a sufficient warning, and that you won’t indulge in the habit again. You will be convicted and discharged.” STATEMENT RIDICULED COMMENT FROM WELLINGTON “UNADULTERATED NONSENSE” Press Association WELLINGTON. Today. “The statement that the nursing profession as a whole is addicted to the drug habit is not going to be allowed to pass unchallenged. ‘lf it was not such a serious reflection on the morals of the whole profession we would not take any notice of it, but it is obviously a wicked exaggeration,” declared the matron of one hospital in Wellington. Nurses in Welfington, it is understood, are calling a protest meeting as soon as possible, in order to combat the insidious suggestion. When approached on the matter the superintendent of the Wellington Hospital said that, although the taking of drugs was not unknown, speaking from many years experience of the hospital and its nursing staff of about 250 nurses, the statement as telegraphed from Gisborne was grossly exaggerated.

Medical opinion in Wellington seems fairly unanimous on the subject and characterises the Gisborne statement as absurd or something worse. One doctor said, “It is the irresponsible utterance of an over-zealous police officer.” He referred to the harm such a statement, telegraphed as it had been ail over the Dominion, would do even if flatly contradicted by authoritative quarters. Another doctor said the first to know that the nurses under them were addicted to drugs would be the doctors themselves. The statement at Gisborne was unadulterated nonsense.

The statement is ridiculed in druggist circles.