Campaign Against Drugs.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 January 1913, Page 4

Campaign Against Drugs.

Of lato an energetic campaign has been opened in Paris against the vendors of such poisonsous drugs as opium, hashish and morphine. Inquiries instituted at Montniarte established the guilt of four chemists ami they will bo prosecuted for illegal sale ol poisons. Moreover arrests have been made of intermediaries between chemists and clients. Hie inquiries have set the police on the tracks of a widely-ramified organisation for the sale of stimulants and narcotics. The organisation finds its clients among two separate classes. 1' irst of all thero are the inveterate drug-takers, among the ranks of whom swe to bo counted not a few doctors and a considerable number of lactora and men of letters, to whom the various drugs have become, from soino reason or other indispensable. In the case of this class the chemist, protected by tho prescription of a qualified medical man, is beyond tho risk of pursuit. But there is a second class of what may be called casual drug-takers, recruited from the curious underworld, which frequents tho Montmaitc district. In not a few cases also, a silly desire to bo in tho swim —"snobisme," as the French call it —is tho prime motive. Of course, the drug, from being a mere freak, soon becomo a terriblo necessity. Hence, a clandestine commerce in hashish, opium and morphino is carried on by unscrupulous chemists, often through intermediaries. Hern the polico can intervene, and there h no reason why their campaign, if jiigorous, should not bo effective. j I