CHECKING THE DRUG TRAFFIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 95, 13 July 1927, Page 8

CHECKING THE DRUG TRAFFIC

THE use of narcotics is not widespread in New Zealand, according to the experience of medical men, and the real addict, in the sense that other countries know these unfortunates, is rare. The taking of drugs, however, is by no means unknown; the habit is extending, and, since prevention is better than cure, the Bill now before Parliament should meet with general approval. Drugs described as dangerous in the Bill include opium, cocaine, morphine, Indian hemp and eegonine; and others may be added to the list by regulation if, in the opinion of the Gov-ernor-General-in-Council, they are likely to lead to the creation of the drug habit, The importation of opium, suitable for smoking, is also prohibited, and heavy fines are provided for allowing premises to be used for opium-smoking, for being in possessioit of opium-smoking utensils and for using the opium-pipe. Traffickers in the drugs specified in the Bill will be liable to a fine of £SOO, or 12 months’ imprisonment, or both. The insidious ease with which the drug habit is formed is one of the chief dangers of its use in medicine, and the reason why medical men hesitate to prescribe it is obvious. There are cases, however, in which narcotics must in all humanity be resorted to, and the blessings they bring in the alleviation of pain cannot be estimated. But it is unfortunately true that the history of a drug-addict has in many instances begun with the use of the hypodermic-needle or the prescription of morphia or its derivatives iu an illness. The “dope” has soothed them; the nervous system continues to crave the narcotic; they “cannot do without it.” The habit is far easier inculcated than cured. Drug-addicts swell the populations of the prisons and hospitals in America, England and the Continent, and also, to a lesser degree, in Australia, where strong measures are now being taken by the authorities against a vice which has grown alarmingly during the last few years. In Sydney victims of the drug habit, go openly into the shops of unscrupulous chemists for a “sniff of snow,’’ or powdered cocaine, and the deadly stuff is sold to addicts in the lanes and by-lanes of the city by scoundrels who profit by their misery. The effects of this drug are even more terrible than those of morphia. The fact that victims of the drug habit are willing to pay anvthing for that which will appease the nervous and mental torture its deprivation inflicts, assures immense profits to traffickers, and because of this unscrupulous people will risk flouting the law. With such heavy penalties as those threatened under the new Bill, however, illegal trafficking in drugs should receive sufficient check to prevent its expansion in this country.