DRUG-TAKING IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18426, 6 July 1925, Page 11

DRUG-TAKING IN CHRISTCHURCH.

!"> THE ZDITO?. PF "TBB TW.SS. Sir. —I did not sec the repoit i ll your paper on June 29th re. diug addicts until to-dav, or I should havewritten earlier. In spite of tho statement made to your reporter that chemists do not supply large quantities. and that tho person who was'procuring £2 of morphia a week must. ha.*c-scr-ured it by very clever means 10 avoid tho vigilance of chemists. I can assure you it was cosily obtained ironi one chemist in largo quantities t> a | l(l often more than one week's Mippj. T - This person was r.lso informed when the nest importation would bo arriving, and her case is not an isolated one. know tivo other women who aro ptocuring equally as large a quantity, but who will not say where they proemo it. "Whether it is supplied by chemists or not I cannot say. One man we had a great deal °f trouble with was spending nearly all his wages on morphia, and it was not until ho lost his employment and exhausted every morns of getting money to buy it that we found out ho was a cltuk addict. It is when the supply is suddenly cut off that thcr become s«> terribly ill. This man has been treated time after time in hospital, only to break out. again. He wes being cared for at Taurangi Home. Ashbtirton. and was doing all right until he got b largo quantity of morphia and a syringe from Chri'-tchureh, and unfortunately lie would not give the name of-the chemist who supplied him, and it was not labelled when found.

Another person, a young tfturse, was taking eight grains a day," and slie received her supply in large quantities from au Auckland chemist —sufficient at a time to keep her going for a week or two. No one suspected her until her supply was suddenly cut off by a parcel going astray. .She became so demented and ill she. too, had to l>e treated in hospital. I know- the chemist was written to, but I hare since heard that she has broken out again and' is fit present in "Wellington. A woman (married), who is also a drug addict, begs money and gets it by all manner of means to buy morphia. lam always being rung lip by somebody to know if such end'such a story, sad cancer case, etc., is true. . A young man, educated, who said be was a chemist, called one day asking for help, saying ho was without food, etc. He refused all offers or help with food and clothing, and begged for money, but seemed so mentally affected and ill that I suspected drugs or drink. He afterwards admitted it was cocaine. His arms were covereS -with inflamed . discharging swellings ■where he had evidently been using an unsterilised syringe. A brothe.* from Australia' has since taken charge of him.

A well-educated woman -who had been a teacher came to me asking for work. After she had tried' several plaees and ■worked all right for a time, I found out from an employer that she also was taking large quantities of drug. i hare heard .of several other cases from doctors and others, but I have not personally come in contact with them. There are many other dangerous drugs that can be purchased at the grocers' as -patent medicine, and many people tfiko these. An old man, who has since died, had a petrol case full of empty chlorodyne bottles at his back door wlie'n I called to see him.

The' Pharmacy Association, I,f<el sure from the information given me, are anxious to deal with this menace, end many chemists absolutely refuse to make' up old prescriptions for drugs. All chemists, however, do not beloftg to the Association, and neither are they refusing to make up these old prescriptions. The Pharmacy Association has been asking Parliament for years for an amendment cf the "Poisons Act" so.as to lie. able more effectively to deal, with these drugs. The old Act is over 50 years old. A. reform is urgently needed and we should Government. to give the : legislation the Association are asking for. Mr Poynton, SQL, commented on the fact that the accused in tho Auckland drug scandal, a hoy of 21 years and a drug addict, could go into chemists', shops in Auckland and produce a, prescription, issued months before and a thousand miles away and purchase drugs sufficient to kill four men. What happened there happens here, and I would be failing in my duty if I did not draw public attention to this great menace in our midst. —Yours, etc.. ANNIE E. HERBERT. July 4th,