THE DRUG HABIT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143764, 12 April 1912, Page 3

THE DRUG HABIT.

EVIDENCE OF ITS INCREASE. By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright, (Received April 12, 9.10 a.m.) SYDNEY, April 12. Giving evidence- before the Pure Food Commission a representative of the Pharmaceutical Society stated that the drug habit and the use of drugs had increased to shocking proportions. He urged that they should be-supplied only on a doctor’s certificate. THE USE OF MORPHIA. MELBOURNE, March 23. While the front door of Australia is supposed to he banged in tb& face of' the opium importer, a more insidious and deleterious narcotic has crept into the life of the people. “Bor every victim of opium,” said a well-known Collins-street doctor this morning, “there arc ten morphia slavos.” Extensive inquiry amongst members of the medical profession covering the city and practices in all the suburbs elicited the same information, that the narcotic is becoming part of the daily life of many neurasthenics. “It is more a rich man’s than a poor man’s habit,” said ono doctor. “Optfium is cheaper. A man can have two pipe's for Is a day, but it ho contracts the morphia habit it may .cost him anything from 2s to -Is a day. The working man cannot afford that. True, it takes five to tea minutes to get a. pipe of opium ready for smoking, and the actual inhalation does not last more than 30 seconds, while morphia can be injected instantaneously, and the effort is oven quicker and more stimulating. “It is supposed, by law, Bind a doctor, that morphia is not procurable by-the ordinary person at the chemists. But this is a fallacy. Cases which have come under my observation leave not tho slightest doubt that- the drug may be easily purchased, and that the rascals who sell it make a big profit out of their unlawful traffic. Modern conditions, the tremendous pace at which people live, continually add to the large number of neurasthenics. This is why tho morphia habit should be most closely watched.” Chemists consulted admitted that there was a ready demand for the dirug.

“Men and women conic into us,” said one of them, “and endeavour to wheedle a bottle from us by pitiful stories of pain which must have attention and of prescriptions mislaid. Tho consumption of the drug is unquestionably on the increase. Medically it is not prescribed any more now than, it was 10 yem-s ago, hut there is a very largo sale which is in no way sanctioned by professional proscriptions. Judging by our experience the habit has .got a firm hold on all classes, and espemally on tho well-to-do, ami, mind you, this is not peculiar to Melbourne. Tho same story can he told of every largo city in Australia.”