Deadly Cocaine

Hokitika Guardian, 8 June 1922, Page 3

Deadly Cocaine

SOUTH AMERICAN PI ANT ANT) ITS VICTIMS. The illicit sale of cocaine is proving as difficult to stop in London as those who knew the character of this ding foretold it would lie when, early m the war, “The Times” first called public attention to the danger. Americans and Canadians in 1 articular viewed our somewhat late addiction to this drug with great misgivings. They had’already seen AG evil progress in their own lands, and witnessed the almost demoniac hold which it is capable of exercising over its victims. Cocaine is an American ding, pir pared from the leaves of a plant, Eivthroxlvon coca. This plant was discovered in the first instance hy the natives of fyjutli America, who found thalt, n they chewed its leaves they could dispel fatigue and undertake very great muscular exertion without difficulty. They experienced too, a sense of elution which has been descrilxxl as “heavenThesc* qualities brought the drug to (Hie notice of the modern hard-pressed world. Its powers were then found to include that of rendering portions of the body naesthetic, and so it 'mined wide popularity in dentistry. That legitimate use, however, accounted, very soon, for hut a fraction of the total imports in Philadelphia. According 'to one pre-war observer, only 4 per cent., and in New York only from 3 to 8 per cent of the cocaine sold passed into the hands of doctors or dentists. Some of it went into “cough cures” and other medioainen'ts. But the bulk undoubtedly, was taken by addicts anxious to escape from a world of unpleasant reality into that conjured up l>v this fatal essence.

“Escape”, indeed, is the secret of cocaine. By rendering the nerves h-ss capable of conveying stimuli, it seems to slndt the door against environment. Everything is postponed to ft delicious, vague manana. The brain, cut off from contact wit’ll 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 nil operation performed without pain, without disturbance of the individual, so trouble and misfortune in the outside world are powerless to affect die cocninp “fiend.” He Ins 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 vigor of the first days, gives place to loquaciousness and maniacal outbursts. The paradise is transformed to a /torment-house, and the wretch goes almost invariably to n dreadful end. Every country has now roused itself to resist this enemy. The battle, however, is necessarily a grim one, for the cocaine-lover will pay anything and go to any lengths *to obtain his drug.