Habit-Forming Drugs by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 13, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 24.

Habit-Forming Drugs

By Editor

A DOCTOR was recently placed under arrest in New York City for administering drugs to a "drug fiend." It was said that a detective from the "narcotic squad" made the arrest.

Quacks who pose as physicians, find a sufficient demand for their services in some of the cities, so that they may devote their time and energies quite fully to prescribing narcotic drugs to those who have the drug habit and who cannot secure them except by a "physician's prescription"; and the city governments, in order to break up these evil practices, are required to have their "narcotic squads."

This country is grappling heroically with the drink evil. The prospect seems good that we may be able to secure an amendment to our national constitution that will prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. But when this is accomplished, there are still left the habit-forming drugs to which the nation is addicted, not the least among which are coffee and tea.

As will be pointed out in an early number, in an article by a leading physician, these drugs and narcotics which fix upon men and women strong habits that demand their continual use, present a menace to our civilization and to our sanity that is even more forbidding than the liquor evil itself.

In some of the foreign nations that have prohibited the use of alcoholic drinks since the war broke out, coffee has been used so freely that other perplexities are arising which present a very difficult situation. Leading physicians have raised the danger signal; and thoughtful people will not only abandon these habits themselves, but will use their influence as strongly as possible to have others join them.

DURING the month of February, 1916, $49,398,036 worth of war materials left United States ports for the warring nations of Europe. The amount shipped in the month of August, 1914, the first month of the war, was only $405,881; the amount shipped for the first four months of the war was only $6,034,814. In other words, during one short month of this year, more than eight times as much war material was shipped to the Old World as was sent during the first four months of the war. Practically three quarters of these tremendous shipments for February were labeled "Explosives other than gunpowder." These "explosives other than gunpowder" are usually what are denominated high explosives. The greed of this time is interested in a business way in prolonging the European war. These figures show one of the greatest impediments to the acquiring of peace.

ON the same day that New York was having her great demonstration in favor of preparedness, Glasgow, Scotland, had a demonstration in the way of a procession of thirty thousand women who marched through the streets of that great city, "as a protest against the manufacture and sale of liquor during the war." The procession was headed by bands, and speeches were made demanding prohibition.

THE meeting of the League to Enforce Peace, of which William Howard Taft is president, and before whom President Wilson delivered his much discussed address of May 27, will be discussed in a strong forthcoming article by M. Ellsworth Olsen, our Washington correspondent.