IS IT CONSISTENT?

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1880

IS IT CONSISTENT?

THE papers on the Pacific coast and in the adjoining Territories contain frequent accounts of raids upon "opium dens," and the arrest of parties patronizing these dens to enjoy the luxury of smoking opium. We are not going to find fault with the authorities—it may be all right. But our query is, why are the opium dens so ruthlessly raided while the "whisky dens" are permitted to flourish, literally to "practice and prosper," day and night, seven days in the week? We do not believe that the others are worse than these. Whisky and brandy slay their tens of thousands, yes, hundreds of thousands, openly, and unblushingly. Opium may enjoy the meagre honor of slaying its hundreds. It should be put down if it slays its tens. We do not complain of the discrimination as against opium; we do complain of the discrimination in favor of the demon alcohol, which scatters misery and ruin in every corner of our fair land.

Said one old-time public man to another, "If the people get mad they will kill you." "If they were not mad," the other replied, "they would kill you." It is proof of a sad derangement of the moral faculties of both legislators and people that this terrible scourge is allowed to exist to prey upon the health, the morals, and the property of the nation.