USE OF DRUGS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 320, 24 December 1929, Page 2

USE OF DRUGS.

TO MAKE THE GUILTY CONFESS A remarkable method of questioning suspected criminals, by means of ■which it is claimed that true answers cannot fail to be obtained, is advocated for use in Great Britain. It is stated that if a suitable mixture cf scopolamine and morphine is injected into a man or woman a state of stupor is produced, known as “ twilight sleep.” In this state, it ik claimed, a guilty person cannot avoid speaking the truth. Commenting on the method the “ Realist,” the editor- j ial board of which includes scientists i like Professor Julian Huxley, Mr J. R. S. Haldane, and Sir Richard Gregory, as well as a London magistrata, .j Mr J. A. R. Cairns, states:— “It i may well be that the claims made for ■ the method are grossly exaggerated. J Nevertheless, they are sufficiently de- j finite to warrant investigation. Pro- j longed cross-examination merges by impreceptible stages into torture. Many innocent persons would prefer an hour under personal anaesthesia to a day under cross-examination. Tt is possible that such an application v of science to the detection of crime would not only be more efficient, but more humane than our present me- , thods.”

A physician to whom the claims for the new method were referred by a | London Press representative said they had not been satisfactorily proved. I “ Something can be done by this me- j thod,” he said, “ but not all that its j advocates claim for it. It is true \ that while in the state of twilight j sleep people will answer questions j involuntarily.”

«Whatever they may think about it in America, the idea of giving a man drugs to make him condemn himself would not be welcome here,” said the secretary of the Law Society.