NEW YORK DRUG SCANDAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1991, 17 June 1919, Page 4

NEW YORK DRUG SCANDAL.

SIX DOCTORS ARRESTED, As a result of investigation by internal revenue officers of the illicit traffic in drugs in New York, it is disclosed that last year a million and a-half prescriptions calling for narcotics were issued illegally. Six physicians who did nothing else but Avrite prescriptions for drugs arc (a correspondent of the Daily Telegraph writes on April 10th) now under arrest, with four druggists who compounded them, it is estimated that in Now York alone there arc 100,000 “drug fiends,” of whom 70 per cent, are under 25 years of age, and that included in the victims is a remarkably high percentage of discharged soldiers and sailors. The principal drug used is heroin, which costs about £3 an ounce, hut is retailed to the unfortunate users at about £ls an ounce. One unscrupulous physician now under arrest prescribed on an average for 200 “patients” daily, . and in one chemist shop were found 50,000 prescriptions for drugs, all dated in the last 10 months.

Grave fears are expressed by the Health Commissioner of the city that the men and women deprived of their narcotics owing to the arrest of the physicians will commence to riot, and in order to avoid such a contingency an official bureau has been opened to dispense drugs to habitual users for a moderate price. The Commissioner emphasised, however, that the clinic would be conducted to effect cures through a gradual reduction of the amount of narcotic furnished. lie admitted that the drug habit is steadily on the increase, and he predicted that when prohibition goes into effect the whisky drinker will join the ranks. When the clinic just opened is not intended to care for all drug users, it is probable that it will be maintained and extended as illicit trafficking in drugs is gradually eliminated.