The Drug Curse

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 27, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 25.

The Drug Curse.— It is a sad fact that 500,000 pounds of opium a year is used in the United States. The New York Independent of May 18, 1911, is authority for this. One fifth of this amount, we are told, is sufficient for all medicinal purposes; 400,000 pounds is used by those addicted to the drug, and its use is rapidly increasing.

"The most frequent victims of the opium habit are physicians and trained nurses."

"Clergymen are not infrequently victims, and occasionally settlement workers, and people, both women and men, who are devoted to charity, are found to be takers of drugs."

Of cocain 200,000 ounces is consumed in this country, one tenth of which is sufficient for legitimate medical purposes. It is more dangerous even than opium. In the antidotes for opium and morphin is often found the drug itself, and all sorts of advertised remedies for asthma, colds, catarrh, consumption, etc., contain cocain and other habit-forming drugs. The drug habit is a mighty evil; but the grace of Christ can cure that.