OUTLAWING “DOPE.”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4931, 27 January 1926, Page 4

OUTLAWING “DOPE.”

„ STOPPING A BIG DRUG EVIL.

GREAT DISCOVERY RECORDED.

« The importation of cocaine and the attendant horrors of drug addiction, a source of so much trouble to the authorities, may soon be stopped by its total prohibition. Dr. W. E. Dixon, F.R.S., ,and Sir W. J. Pope, F,R',S„ record a, wonderful, discovery in the "Daily Mail." They jointly state : —

"In medical and surgical practice cocaine finds two broad uses'. First, the hypodermic injection of cocaine hydrochloride produces local anaesthesia. Advantage has been taken of ■tlilw property for the painless extraction of tooth and for other minor opera,tions.

"During late years, however, numerous artificial' local, anaesthetics have been introduced, ,and some of these, while devoid of the habit-in-ducing properties of cocaine, are quite efficient substitutesi for cocaine .as an anaesthetic for hypodermic injection in minor operations. “The second use is explained by the fact that when water solutions' of a cocaine salt are applied to a mucous surface, such as that of the eye or the nasal cavities, complete insensibility of the surface results. In this condition the patient can undergo surgical operations of some severity without feeling the knife. “Until recently n'o artificial or synthetic drug had been produced which satisfactorily replaced cocaine as a local surface anaesthetic. Cocaine has been thus essential to the work of the ophthalmic surgeon, and the restrictions placed upon its distribution by the Dangerous Drugs Act have been a, hindrance to surgery.

“A purely scientific problem will be~ s.een emerging from the difference in local anaesthetic action of cocaine salte and of the synthetic substances for cocaine. This consists in determining why, since both are efficient on hypodermic injection, the cocaine salts alone act as satisfactory local surface anaesthetics.

“We proposed this problem to Messrs A. J. Copeland and H. 0. F. Nptton, research workers: in our laboratories at Cambridge, and, thanks to their efforts, the reason for the inactivity of the coca.ine substitutes as local surface anaesthetics has been discovered. Further, a class of cocaine substitutes, the so-called borocaines; has been discovered which seems destined entirely to replace cocaine as surface anaesthetics as well a,s for injection.

‘.‘ln the end it w.as discovered that the surface anaesthetic effect of,cocaine or its substitutes depends upon the nature of the acid with which the alkaloid is combined in the salt used“Thus, taking the surface anaesthetic effect of cocaine hydrochloride as one, that of an equivalent quantity of cocaine borate is. found to be about four. Measured oh the same scale, the hydrochlorides of .two well-known cocaine substitutes, beta-eucaine and ethocaine, are almost without surface anaesthetic .action ; the surfa.ee anaesthetic action of beta-eucaine borate its, however, about fen, and that of ethocaine borate about one. “In view of its- freedom from toxic, irritating, or habit-forming properties, ethocaine borate will probably entirely replace cocaine hydrochloride for injection purposes in minor surgery ; by reason of their powterful surface anaesthetic effect betaeucaine borate and ethocaine borate seem destined to replace cocaine hydrochloride in ophthalmic and nasal surgery.

"Since the borates of cocaine and its substitutes exert thip- remarkable specific activity a,s surface anaesthetics the g’eneric name of ‘borocaines’ has been given fo them. These borocaines seem to pave the way for legislation entirely prohibiting the importation of cocaine and so minimising cocaine addiction.

“The drug addict is not a police case ; he can only be cured by prolonged medical attention and by the withholding of supplies. We hope and expect tha,t the work of Copeland .and Notion will provide justification for. further legislative restrictions on the traffic in cocaine.”