Am.  joun  Pharm.  |    ji^icokol:  Its  RelaUou  to  Scteftce,  Etc.  485 
believe  that  doctors  as  a  class  are  in  the  habit  of  prescribing  too 
much  whiskey  and  other  intoxicating  liquors,  and  would  use  less 
if  it  were  more  difficult  to  obtain. 
The  third  class  have  determined  to  handle  and  to  sell  neither 
whiskey  nor  other  intoxicating  liquors,  including  even  non-beverage 
alcohol,  for  any  purpose  whatever.  According  to  certain  members 
of  this  class  they  not  only  desire  to  be  rid  of  the  inconvenience 
incident  to  the  supervision  of  dealers  in  intoxicating  liquors,  but 
they  believe  that  refusal  to  sell  them,  even  on  a  prescription  of  a 
physician,  or  to  handle  alcohol  in  any  form,  for  any  purpose,  will 
be  approved  by  the  general  public  and  especially  by  the  officials  of 
the  Government  charged  with  the  supervision  of  this  traffic;  also 
that  the  refusal  to  handle  intoxicants  of  any  kind  will  aid  materially 
in  advancing  the  ethical  position  of  the  retail  drug  trade  and  go 
far  toward  correcting  false  impressions  that  have  found  lodgment 
in  the  public  mind  as  the  result  of  the  acts  of  a  few  unscrupulous 
members  of  the  trade. 
Without  attempting  an  analysis  of  the  attitude  of  these  three 
sections  of  the  trade,  it  may  be  well  to  call  attention  to  certain 
important  considerations.  It  is  an  incontrovertible  fact  that  a 
large  and  eminently  respectable  contingent  of  practicing  physicians 
believe  that  intoxicating  liquors  are  of  decided  value  in  the  treat- 
ment of  certain  diseases  and  physiological  conditions.  Their  right 
to  prescribe  them  is  specifically  conceded  by  the  provisions  of  the 
Volstead  Act,  which  thereby  imposes  upon  the  Internal  Revenue 
Bureau  the  exceedingly  difficult  task  of  policing  their  production, 
distribution  and  administration. 
It  would  be  an  ideal  condition,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  more  or 
less  intoxicating  liquor  is  certain  to  be  sold  on  physicians'  pre- 
scriptions pursuant  to  the  Volstead  Act,  if  some  quasi-official  dispens- 
ing system  could  be  adopted,  possibly  under  the  supervision  of  the 
Public  Health  Service,  but  the  Government  appears  to  be  taking  no 
steps  looking  to  the  organization  of  any  such  system  and  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  retail  drug  trade  might  well  take  this  matter  up 
vigorously  and  pursue  it  with  the  greatest  possible  energy  until 
some  adequate  system  has  been  devised.  Physicians  are  contending 
with  considerable  emphasis  that  the  retail  druggists  owe  it  to  the 
medical  profession,  to  which  they  are  the  recognized  purveyors, 
and  to  the  public  which  they  must  be  ever  ready  to  serve,  that  they 
shall  do  more  than  merely  determine  that  they  will  not  sell  intoxi- 
