ADDICTION TO DRUGS.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 April 1925, Page 1

ADDICTION TO DRUGS.

POSITION IN AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND, April 13. A prominent Auckland, social worker whose duties take him into some strange corners of the city, stated today that the drug habit had assumed distinctly larger proportions during tlie past two or three years, a result which he attributed in the case of men to the after-elfeets of war, and in the case of women to “just a silly fad.” He indicated that lie now had one or two cases under observation and that several bad cases had passed through his bands in the past few years. There seemed, said the social worker, to be always a proportion of unfortunate iK'ople, who, from one reason or another, succumbed to tho practice and wlvo found it almost a sheer impossibility to escape the toils, once the craving had become ingrained in the system. whether the drug was morphine, heroin or cocaine. It attacked all classes in the community, men and women alike.

The report that the drug habit was growing in Auckland was emphatically endorsed by a well-known chemist. ‘There is no doubt about it at all.” he staled. “I receive dozens of inquiries for drugs over the counter and have to refuse them time after time.”

C’nemistfv, he added, would not sell drugs unless they wove prescribed by medical practitioners, or unless a customer and his credentials were personally known. 'Flic trouble was that in ,most cases the addict resorted to every ruse and stratagem t:> attain the object of his desires, and almost invariably, would produce a fictitious proscription. The opinion seems In be general among those authorities who have had the evil under their notice that the practice is festered principally by women who have had training in musing and uho have been accustomed to administer heavy injections to patients in hospitals and nursing homes. Appreciating their ofliciicv in retie', iug pain and producing deep sleep, nidi people frequently use morphine and allied drugs and recommend them to others with the result, in a goodly proportion of eases, that, the pniienf.s develop into habitual drug fiends to whom Hie procuring of regular doses becomes a matter of urgent entreaty and deception.

Apart from chemists, there seems to 1,0 little doubt that supplies of drugs, sm-li as cocaine, heroin and morphine, ran be and actually are obtained, from Illicit “dope” shops in the city. An addict will pay so handsomely to procure tho coveted possession that there is money in the trade if the man who risks it can remain undetected. That shops where supplies can be purchased do oxist in Auckland is fully indicated by evidence which leaks out when some apparently hopeless addicts reform and overcome the habit, but that i- verv seldom.

The prevalence of the drug habit among young women finds condemnation ju several quarters and blaine i> laid in some instances on the cxivs»n« u-e of headache cures. “r find.” was one comment, “that girls will eat these tablets by the dozen am! < how four or five of them if they have a headache or are a little < li colour. It is a very had habit,”

This view met with the concurrence „f leading Auckland chemist. ‘'There is no question about- it. ’ he agreed. “Hundreds of society girls carry these oaves round in their vanity bags, white shop girls take’them continually. 1 would not say it- was dangerous,” he added, “but it is certainly not- beneficial and it- may lie only a preliminary to the development- of a confirmed drug habit.” Re considered that the use of such ( tires was growing because of the excitable lives which so many girls led but the net result was that, they encouraged a state in which they found themselves absolutely dependent- upon some nerve sedative.