5 A Million Drug Addicts

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1004, 21 June 1930, Page 20

5 A Million Drug Addicts

SH-H-H! He's a sniffer.” TUe two looked at Wheeler in a corner of the cattle-boat cabin taking his “shot.” menon to Charles S. Kendall, ho tells us in “The Christian Century,” but he has learned more —since/that trip on the cattfe-boat—about the “dope” peril with which even school children are surrounded. It is said that there are a million addicts in the United States alonethat virtually one person in every hundred there takes drugs regularly. But they should not be condemned i out of hand. j “If we think of these people as%wil- ! ful abusers of their physical and

j mental health, it is one thing.” says Mr. Kendall; “but if we realise that j these people are not ‘fiends/ but sick r-

men and women, our attitude must change.” The habit is soou fastened on the victim, we read. Regular daily doses will make addicts of the average person in a. month, and of particularly susceptible persons in ten days. Let us see how extensive the danger is said to be: “The United States uses the most opium derivatives per annum, leading the world with 36 grains per capita. India is next with 27 grains; France, four; -England, three; Germany, two; China, two; Italy, one. These figures appeared as the result of the League of Nations survey in 1923. “America’s problem. Is evident. “In spite of all the laws m force against the use of drugs to the extent ! of addiction, there are one million ’ addicts. We cannot call them ,',ll ] spineless weaklings, although . some .may be. We. cannot go on misunder- | standing them and forcing them to i hide away from a merciless society. I Authorities have yet to find a person j who takes the drug for ‘pipe-dreams’ ; and sensual pleasure. These unforj tunates derive no pleasure from it- | only relief from pain. We certainly | see the folly of arresting them. and j giving them their drugs free of j charge. ] “What shall we do? I “ ‘An ounce of prevention is worth ' a pound of cure.’ Intelligent underS standing of the problem,^—thorough j education of school children as to the | inevitable and terrible consequences , ; of the use of drugs, will make the I children as wary as they now are of i \ spiders and mushrooms. f \ “If the public can be taught that the ■ j man who steps on a coiled rattlesnake ; is in no more danger of being terribly I poisoned than the man who takes • drugs, the numbers of new addicts will . i fall off to a minimum. It is, after all, : | a matter of education.'!