ENFORCING PROHIBITION.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3382, 10 January 1920, Page 6

ENFORCING PROHIBITION.

An unexpected difliculty in enforc—' ing prohibition, the indiscriminate isai sue of prescriptions for alcohol forl _“medicinal pur_poses.,«.” has been ex-J pcrienced in the Canadian province ofi British Columbia. A statement on the question was made recently by thei Premier of the -p_ro.vince, Mr John; Oliver; “The ch-I._ef=, difficulty in the? way of the enforcement of the -,1;-.-om-ition enactment in the province is the I indiscriminate issuing of doctors’ prescriptions,” said Mr Oliver‘? “:l_.‘hey_‘ are provided for in the Act, and their control by the Govermncnt is a 11i:1.tt.er outside of our jurisdiction altogetzlisjp at the present time._ (We have placed certain laws governing the sale and use of liquorupon our books. and those laws are being carried out, as far as the Government is colicerneo, by eveiy conceivable means which we are empowered to use. The police authorities are playing their part, .-‘md the Government must live up to ‘the letter of the law, which allows the use of liquor upon the request of a physician. The abuse of this privilege is something upon which.we had ‘lot, at the time, counted, and which ha.s~ yarisen as an exceptionally diflicult problem. The outstanding fact at the present moment is that the Provincial Government officers have done all in {their power to enforce the laws i‘s they stand on the books, and that the object of these laws has largely been defeated by theaploophole left in the matter of prescriptions. Until some solution of this difficulty is arrived at ‘the prohibition law in British C‘;01111n~ jbia must continue to be in the Very ‘unsatisfactory state which is comiplained of by a large section of the ‘people!’