NARCOTIC DRUGS CONSTITUTE A MENACE OPIUM

White Ribbon, Volume 26, Issue 3, 1 June 1954, Page 5

NARCOTIC DRUGS CONSTITUTE A MENACE OPIUM

(One of a aeries on Narcotic Drugs)

Narcotic drugs have been of service to mankind in the relief of suffering, but the grave danger of their use, is that addiction can be caused and as a result, their abuse is a major problem in the world today In one year recently, in U.S.A. over 5,000 narcotic law violators were at rested and there are two great hospitals for drug addicts in Kentucky and Texas. Narcotic law officers see only too much proof, that these addicts endanger public morals, health and welfare. A great medical authority has said, “A drug addict is ten times as dangerous and ten times as cunning as a leper, not through physical contact, but through mental contact.” Even doctors, who know all too well the dangers involved, fall victims themselves, to the use of narcotics.

In 1884, Frances Willard, founder of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, had the idea of a Polyglot Petition addressed to all countries against alcohol, opium and other dangers. It wr*.s signed by seven and a half million persons from fifty countries and I had the privilege of seeing the rolls containing the signatures, carefully stored in the U.S.A. W.C.T.U. Headquarters at Evanston, the town where the Conference of the World Council of Churches will be meeting later this year

One widely used narcotic is opium which is obtained from a poppy poison in Asia Minor, Persia, India and China. Opium is extracted from the seed cases of poppies, not from the seeds, as these can be used in cooking without harm. Opium is referred to in Homer’s Odyssey. The essayist, De Quincey whose grave I saw in an Edinburgh Churchyard, wrote last century, his famous book, ‘‘Confessions of an Opium eater.” Ht wrote from experience as an opium addict himself. From opium are derived morphine, laudanum, codein and heroin. The story of the spread of opium addiction in China is a sad one, which brings no discredit on the Chinese people, for 170 years ago, the Chinese neither smoked opium, chewed tobacco or were enslaved to alcohol. A nation of over 300 million people-had no craving for stimulants and narcotics. 1 hey knew opium as a drug used for medical purposes. At first, the Portugese traders and British East India Company could get no sale for it

In 1781, the British East India Company sent a cargo of 1,000 chests of opium to China, and only one merchant took it at half-price. Unable to sell it, he returned it to the senders. The Chinese Government w r as awake to the dangers and made stringent regulations against its sale. However, a contraband trade grew up and in 1838, 34,000 chests of Indian opium we r e brought into China, the sale, bringing a rich revenue to the British

East India Co. The Chinese tried to crush the Traffic, but their efforts resulted in the first Opium War, which was strongly condemned by Gladstone and other right-thinking Englishmen. The peace terms iaid down by Britain were a blot on her fair name. An indemnity of f4,500,(XX) was demanded from the Chinese. Hong Kong ceded to Britain and five por.s were opened to the British by treaty, for commerce. The British still pressed the sale of opium and a second Opium War was begun in 1857. Many Britons were horrified at the action of their Government The Emperor, whose son had become an addict, made this declaration with deep sorrow’, “It is true that I cannot prevent the introduction of the flowing poison. Gain-seeking and corrupt men will, for profit and sensuality, defeat my wishes. But nothing shall induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my people.” In 1860, Peking surrendered and the Summer Palace was burned. The peace terms demanded another large indemnity. Opium was to be an article of commerce at a lower rate than the tea and silk coming to England. Christian Missions were to be tolerated. Surely no Article of Peace terms could have ben more ironical than the latter one. In despair, the Chinese started growing the poppy themselves, for revenue and the habit spread. It became a Proverb, that eleven out of ten people smoked opium. Because of the Opium Wars, very real hostility was shown to Missions and the missionaries w r ere confronted with much ridicule.

Now the Red Chinese are waging a opium war against the rest of the world and are trying to get into w'orld distribution, no Jess than 500 tons of opium. Some of the opium is moving through the Russian ports of Darien and Port Arthur. Chinese opium is reported to be pouring into Burma. Malaya, Indonesia and Thailand. The U.S. Army is reported to be acting vigorously to protect American troops from the drug danger which exists behind the lines on Korea. America is aware of the menace to her own people. A century ago, opium eating was common in England. Opium was cheaper that? alcoholic drinks. Mothers in the slums used it to quieten their babies, but its use is however, more prevalent in Asia.

Before the last World War, I read that the Singapore Base was financed by revenue from the Opium smokers of Singapore. If so, surely the fall of that great Base seemed as though the judgment of God had fallen, as the result of “this house built on the sand.” The soul of Frances Willard turned within her at the thought of the victims of the dreadful evil of opium. Our World W.C.T.U. Department of Opium and other Narcotics, is very much awake to this problem today

—By Victoria Grigg, M.A.