DEADLY COCAINE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17470, 2 June 1922, Page 13

DEADLY COCAINE.

SOUTH AMERICAN PLANT AND ' ITS VICTIMS. The illicit sale of cocaine is proving as difficult to stop in London as those who knew the character of this drug foretold it would he when, early Jn the war, ''The Times" first called pubI lie attention to the danger. Amen--1 cans and Canadians in particular viewed our somewiiat late addiction to this drug with groat misgivings. They had already seen its enj progress m their own lands, and witnessed the almost demoniac ho.d which it is capable of exercising over its victims. Cocaine is an American drug, prepared from the lcaws of a plant, Erythroxylon coca. This plant was discovered in the first instance by the natives of South America, who found that if th.iv chewed its leaves they ooulid dispel i'.jigue and undertake very great muscular exertion without difficulty. They experienced, toa, p sense of elation which has been described as ".heavenly." These qualities brought the drug to the" notice of th e modern, hard-pressed world. Its powers were then f.und to include that of rendering portions of the body anaesthetic, and so it gained wide popularity in dentistry. That legitimate use, ilunvcver, accounted, very soon, fcr but a f,ac.ion of thj total imports in Philadelphia. AcLoruing to one pre-war observer, only 4 ner cent., and in New York only from 3 to 8 per cent., of the cocaine sold passed into the hands of doctors or Some of it went into "cougii cures" and other medi anients. But the bulk, undoubtedly, was taken by addicts anxious to escape from a world of unpleasant reality into that conjured up by this fatal essence. "Escape, indeed : is the secret of cocaine. By rendering the nerves less capable of conveying stimuli, it seems to shut the door against environment. Everything is postponed to a delicious, vague manana. The brain, cut off from contact with fact, dwells in fantasies of its own, "fiddling," in very truth, while its realm, the body, is destroyed. Thus, just as under the, medical use of the drug a tooth may be" extracted or an operation performed without pain, without disturbance of the individual, so trouble and misfortune in the outside world are powerless to affect the cocaine "fiend." He has raised up a wall against them. The penalty, however, is death, since man lives and restores himself through contact with reality. First, reason, dwelling in 'this fool's /paradise, is shaken, then health gives way. The facile brilliance, the vigofur of the first days, gives place to Icquaciousness and maniacal outbursts. The paradise is transformed to a torment-house, and the wretch goes almost invariably to a dreadful end. Every country has now roused itself to resist this enemy. The battlo, however, is necesarily a grim one, for the cocaine-lover will pay anything and go to any lengths to obtain his drug.