. » x at tom Pattee THE PERIL OF NARCOTIC DRUGS A Pamphlet fer the Use of Teachers and Parents PHILOSOPHY - HISTORY The human race is consuming every year many thousands of tons of poison- ous narcotic drugs not one percent of which is necessary for strictly medici- nal purposes, Nearly all of this great quantity is consumed by addicts who number in the world scores of millions,- who are abject slaves, -— who consider getting their drug supply as the supreme consideration, in many cases as a matter of life and death. The production and distribution of these drugs censtitutes a profitable traffic of vast proportions extending to all corners of the earth, - In the Orient, the chief home of the sleep poppy whose seed capsules produce opium, the governments, for the revenue profits, encourage and often subsidize pro- duction and control distribution, - In the Occident where chemical science is turned to concentrating the poison of opium into morphine and turning this into a still more powerful poison narcotic, heroin, Lews and regulations loosely enacted for repression drive most of the addiction traffic te cover where it flourishes in the dark in spite of the agents of the law. The motive and urge that constantly drive the traffic on are the enor- mous profits, the jobbér and retailer in the illicit traffic between them often realizing more than a thousand per cent profit. Add to this the lure for the armies of impoverished addicts of getting the drug for themselves through recruiting and supplying new addicts. The profits are so great because the poor addict under the awful de- prossion and torture of (withdrawal symptems) feels he must have the drug no matter what the cost or the consequences, whether he has to spend his last dollar, whether he has to steal to get the money, whether he has to rob or even commit murder. The bulk of this vast horde are “hooked" into addiction because of their ignorance, never dreaming what the consequences are to he when they take the first "shot" or first "sniff", The sleep poppy, the source of opium, is a native plant in Southeastern Burope and Western Asia, Frequent notices of its use for poisoning aro found in ancient and medieval records. Opium smoking was devised by the Dutch in Java in the Fighteenth Century, first mixed with tobacco, then used alone. From Java, it was taken to Fermosa, and thence to the mainland of China. Portuguese traders first developed the importation of opiwn into China. They were succeeded by the East India Cempany with a monopoly of the _ traffic of India. The amount shipped from India into China rose as high as 10,000,000 pounds in the year 1858. In 1906 the production in China itself was estimated at 44,000,000 pounds, importations from India that year being over 7,000,000 pounds. At that date estimates place the number of addicts in China at 27 per cent of the adult male population, In 1803, a French chomist discovered how to produce morphine from sepium and a half century later, an Austrian chemist discovered how to produce co- caine from cocoa leaves. These concentrated drugs used generally in medicine, ten times es power- ful as opium, swiftly produced addiction in all lands, at first as a by-pro&- uct of medical practice, later through exploitation as well. In 1898 a German chemist discovered how to produce heroin from morphine, between three and four times as powerful as morphine. With the spread of | heroin, the narcotic menace has developed into a pressing world peril. os In 1729 the Chinese Govermment issued an edict prohibitins opivm smok- ing in China, The effect was good but proved of little permanent evail, In 1790 the Chinese Government again issued an edict prohibiting opium smok- ing and in 1800 pichibiting the importation of opium into China. This led up +o the opium wars waged on China which compelled its submission to the im- portation of the opium. The dawning of hope for real reform came when America in 1905 enacted a law prohibiting opium traffic in the Philippine Islands and sent a Committee to the Governments of the Orient. This action was followed by China in 1906 with an edict prohibiting the use of opium aad the culture of the poppy. Upon the initiative of the United States, the first International Opium Conference was held in Shanghai in 1909, followed by a second and third conference at The Hague in 1912 and 1913. Recently conferences of the Opium Commission of the League of Nations and its Gommittees have been held at Geneva. These conferences while of great value, particularly in bringing out the fact that narcotic drug addiction is a problem to ali nations and to the human race, have illustrated how slow and how difficult it is to secure adequate in- ternational cooperation and how, even where these have been securéd, though of elementary nature, the ereatest difficulties have been encountered on aecount of smuggling. Universal experience has shown that laws and treaties are dif- ficult to secure and more difficult to enforce. TOXICOLOGY -- ETIOLOGY The principal narcotics that have defied legal control and are now scourg- ing huamnity, namely, opium, morphine, cocaine, heroin, belong to the. general Class of organic or hydro-carboh poisons. They concentrate their attack upon the nervous! system, producing delirium, coma, convulsions. These are all alkaloidal poisons, most of which in nature are generated by plants. Opium is the coagulated sap of the capsules of the sleep or white poppy grown chiefly in India, China, Turkey and Persia. Morphine constitutes the principal poisoning element in opium, about eight to fifteen per cent. Heroin was made formerly only from morphine by treeting it with acetic acid and hydro- chloric acid, It is reported now, as stated, that chemists have learned how to make it synthetically from coal-tar products, Cocaine is made usually from the ldéaves of the cocoa plant grovn chiefly in South America, but is now made also synthetically from coal-—tar products. Chemically, these poisons are built up around the deadly pyridin base con- taining five atoms of hydrogen, five atoms of carbon, and one atom of nitrogen, joined together in a nucleus like a closed ring. The complex structure in this opium group contains three rings, the phenanthren structure united to the ni- trogen nucleus, with oxygen introduced. In morphine, the formula, C 17, H19, N 0 3, contains seventeen atoms of | carbon, 19 of hydrogen, and one of nitrogen, three of oxygen. The formula of cocaine is C17, H 21, NO 4. In the case of heroin, acetic and hydro-ehloric acid introduce edditionel complexity, giving more powerful poisoning properties, vroducing morphine-diacetylate, having the formula C 21, H 23, N05, Protoplasm, the living material from which al] living parts are built, is composed of proteins, water and a little salt. Its life processes require a regular supply of food and oxygen end regular elimination of waste products. Some poison& attack the protoplasm itself; some interfere with its necessary life vrocesses; some do both. The highly orgenized alkaloidal poisrtgs combine readily with proteins, and easily penetrate the wall or sheathing ; protects the living cells, Conse- quently, we would expect the result to be not only violent derangement in the wie usual activities and life processes, but permanent injury to the structure. Since the nervous system is the most highly organized part of the whole human organism, it is not sucprising that these complex alkaloidal poisons should show their chief effect upon the nervous system and should attack man more than the lower animals, Since, of the nervous system, the upper brain is the most delicate, 1t is not surprising that this part should be the first attacked and the most deeply injured, although it is from damage to the func-— tions of the lower brain that death occurs with a fatal dose. PHYSIOLOGY Narcotics are soluble in fat, so they penetrate the fatty sheathing that protects the brain from most harmful substances in the blood current, and in this way the poison comes quickly in bontacs with the delicate, highly organ- ized gray matter. One of the earlier physiological effects is to stop the action of the parts that cause the sensation of pein, and this is what gives narcotics their chief legitimate value in the prectice of medicine, but even in the effect of deadening the sense of pain, the action of the drug is that of a poison. In the same way, these poisons attack the delicate carefully protected organs of reproduction, impairing the sexual powers of the mele, causing the female addict to become sterile, and undermining the germ plasm by virtue of which the species renews its life from generation to generation. ‘Tyrode (Harvard) in his Pharmacology, sums up the symptoms of morphine ad- diction as follows; "Depravity of the mind; general debility; loss of weight end appetite; loss of sexual powers; sleeplessness; eczema, contracted pupils, diarrhoea alternating with constipation, and finally death from mal-nutrition," The case is different with cocaine and heroin, The victims of these powerful drugs unless they have repeated treatment live but a short time, at best. The degeneration of the upper brain is so swift that the elements of character crumble in a few months, Complete demoralization follows and often the life of crime joins with physical ills and the spur of the torture of the drug to hasten the end. Qne-eighth of a grain of morphine or one-twenty-fifth of a grain of heroin is sufficient to put a person under ‘the drug, In a few davs, the system will develop sufficient cavacity to neutralize this quantity. Then the drug effect will be felt only after getting beyond the point of neutralization, when it will be necessary to have a quarter of a grain, later a half grain, and soon a erain and more to produce the desired effect. Though one to two grains of morphine is a fatal dose ordinarily to a person wumaccustomed to the drug, ten grains cof morphine daily is common, many taking 20 grains, some 50, There are records of more than 100 grains taken daily. When the drug begins to subside, as it does in a few hours, the equilib- rium is upset as though by an irritating poison, The distressing effect is general, no part of the body escapes. A condition of torture sets in. The muscles seem to become knotty. Cramps ensue in the abdomen and viscera, at- tended frequently by vomiting and involuntary discharge of the bowels, Pains often succeed each other as though a sword were being thrust through the body. In advanced cases this suffering (called withdrawal symptoms) is considered the most acute torture ever endured by man, and continues for cays. In some cases, death will ensue if the addict is far advanced and the dose or "shots". are suddenly stopped. The drug of addiction will quickly relieve this tor- ture. Naturally, the addict comes to consider getting his supply of the drug as a matter of life and death. ~4. : PSTCHOLOGY Morphine, cecaine, heroin are rhite powders, all soluble in water, all bitter to the taste, Morphine is ususlly put up in the form of tablets. Cocaine and heroin are called "snow and in various localities by other names. Heroin predominates now, especially in the eastern portion of the United States, so that "snow"’, "snow parties", etc,, refer usually to heroin. When luring girls into addiction the peddler often calls heroin "headache powder," With peddlers at large, using as they often do boys and girls to aid them, the safe precaution for a youth of either sex to take is to repulse instantly any suggestion to "take a shot'! which means to take a hypodermic of morphine, to take "a sniff" or "g blow" of "snow", and to avoid all forms of white powder. ‘It is the custom to give away heroin free to the youth till he or she is "hooked", When children are away from home it is a safe practice to accept nothing as a gift to eat, drink or whiff, not even from a supposed friend. When you decline the first offer the boy or girl aiding the peddler will taunt you or challenge you and say "try anything once", "you will get a kiek out of it'; "Watch me"; "Come to our 'Snow Party! and watch the other fellows do it.” Alas! @NCE is once too often. The poison is so swift that the poor youth will seek the next party for relief, and the next. A "snow party" a day for a week will probably drag a youth into the bondage of addiction worse than death from which experience teaches there is no sure escape. The narcotic poison penetrating the upper brain, naturally inflicts the deepest and swiftest injury upon the parts that are the tenderest, the most complex and unstable, which are developed latest in human evolutionary prog- ress and distinguish the man from the brute. This part of the brein may be considered as the temple of the Spirit, the seat of altruistic motives,of character, of those high, God-like traits upon which an advanced and enduring civilization are built, The transformation in character is swift in the young, and swifter with cocaine and heroin than with the other narcotics.’ -In an incredibly short time, a youth of either sex "hooked" with the "snow gang" loses the results of good heredity and of careful home training. Self respect, honor, obedience, ambition, truthfulness melt away. Vir- tue and morality disintegrate. The question of securing the drug supply be- comes absolutely dominant, To get this supply the addict will not only ad- vocate public policies against the public welfare, but will lie, steal, rob and if necessary commit murder. Thus we can understand how intimately ad- diction is connected caysatively with crime. In addition to the general antiscoial traits of all addicts, the heroin addict has two special characteristics, First, for a period after taking the drug he experiences an "exaltation of the ego", looks upon himself as a hero, Bent upon getting money to buy his drug, he will dare anything, thinks he can eccomplish anything. The daylight hold-ups, robberies and murders com- mitted by these young criminal heroin addicts eclipse in daring all the ex- ploits of Jesse James and his gang. This can be said also of cocaine addicts. Secondly, the heroin addict has a mania to bring everybody else into ad- diction. It may be said in general that all addicts have a desire for con- pany and wish others to share with them the problem of securing the drug supply, but in the case of the heroin addict, it is an absolute mania for re- cruiting, He thinks, droams, plots to bring all whom he contacts into ad- diction, Al1 addiction is communicable, Heroin addiction can be likened to a contagion. Another general characteristic of addiction psychology is secretiveness. Where the drug supply is easily accessible so that withdrawal symptoms do not