SLAVES OF COCAINE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 225, 10 November 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

SLAVES OF COCAINE.

HOW THE DRUG FASCINATES ITS VICTIMS. Cocaine lias relieved much suffering and ruined many lives, for this drug is a blessing and a curse, according to the way in which it is used. The cocaino habit may be easily acquired, but though its early effects are pieasant, it often ends in the loss of al! that makes life worth living, and in hri_dreds <■; cases it has ended in madness and death.

It came to this country, says a writer in an English paper, as an aid in surgery, and in this respect it has proved a blessing ,but the drug, in the hands of the unscrupulous s.'.arks who live by its sale, has become a terror. Why women should be more addicted to the secret indulgence in the drug is explained by a well-known doctor who has a big practice in what are called "Nervous" cases. His success has brought him into contact with all classes of society, and he says that he has been offered large sums of money to supply this drug to women who have become its victims. ITS FATAL POWER. Cancer of the breast has been re lieved by the drug applied li.cally, and again and again have suffering women taken the cocaine until at last it became necessary to have tin needlepointed syringe always at hand. The exhilaration of the moment being followed by an agony of pain and deep depression, necessitating a fresh injection.

One victim of the drug was in the habit of taking as much as fifty to sixty grains a day. Tin drug in this case was supplied by a man who had been chased out of New York by the authorities for supplying it to the victims of its passing charms. And here is the secret of the drug 1 ? power to hold it?, slaves—its charms are passing, there must always b • a fresn /mpply, and in the end to great has the amount become that there is no place in which the drug "fund" may be left with safety except the lunatic asylum.

,{M : tstaken kindness on tht part of people knowing the drug's soothing ae tion upon pain has resulted in many of our soldiers becoming addicted to the habit. This is a case in which the remedy is a thousand times more harmful than the disease, and no measure of restriction as to the sale of the drug to unauthorised persons would be too drastic.

Many soldiers to-day curse the hour that made them acquainted with the seductions of this brain-stealing and nerve-racking poison. They have recovered from their wounds, but al! malnJiess has left them, and they live on from day to day in the gn'r of a fo« more terrible than death. THERE IS A CURE. Cocaine may be taken in tablet form or in a liquid stata. In the lalter form i: is injected into the arm or breast. Taken in tablet form it has the power to produce a state ot care-free exhilaration, makes the dull sparkling, and gives a point and vivacity to the.remarks of the one under its sway. It is for this reason man/ theatrical people have had the drug administered when feeling dull or out of sorts. Many of them are now in the Urug wards of lunatic asylums. It is for much the same reason that ladies in high society have become slaves to the habit. It was prescribed for nerves, in the first place, but tlrhabit grew, and at last the u diligence in cocaine became a daily necessity. There is a cure for cocaine victims, which consists in a gradual ledution of ihe amount taken, and will-power. But cocaine destroys will-power, and a dru* slave has to fight hard to get free. The only thing to do is :c frankly consult a'doctor. AND T>KE HIS \DVICE.