DRUG FASCINATION

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1954, 20 March 1919, Page 1

DRUG FASCINATION

TWO TYPES OF VICTIM. Victims of the drug habit may be divided into two classes —those who have contracted a craving for soothing drugs while suffering from a painful illness and those who resort voluntarily to drugs in order to derive a new sensation. Patients admitted into institutions which specialise in the drug cure are for the most part composed of the first class, and under skilled treatment they can be cured. In the case of neurotic seekers after excitement, drugs become more of a permanent habit and the constitution is almost invariably destroyed. Dr, Mary Scharlieb, the well-known woman pathologist, said: “Many women find a strange fascination in doping themselves, and terrible harm may bo caused by having drugs easily at hand in the home. The knowledge that a certain, if temporary, cure for pain or sleeplessness is within roach proves too tempting, and accidents, and even tragedies, arc caused in consequence. The question of a cure depends entirely on the strength of mind possessed by the patient, and, of course, on the length of lime devoted to the habit.” She agreed that the voluntary and involuntary victims are two distinct classes, and declared that the lamentable increase in the drug habit threatens to become a national calamity. Inquiries show that the traffic in cocaine, morphine, and heroin is largely in the hands of that section of tire swell mob who thrive on illicit gambling, blackmailing, and the white slave traffic. They easily find customers, for one of the peculiarities of the drug habit is that confirmed victims are eager to introduce the practice to others, and by exaggerating its curative virtues and stimulating properties induce the unwary to fall into the same pit of inevitable disease and depression.