484  Acquirement  of  Drug  Habits.        { A Vtobei- PiSm* 
OPIUM  AND  MORPHINE  USE. 
Careful  study  of  data  personally  collected  and  from  reliable  sources 
forces  the  conclusion  that  the  habitual  use  of  opium  in  its  various 
forms  is  increasing  and  that  this  increase  is  confined  to  no  one  class 
or  occupation.  A  majority  of  the  class  known  as  "  habitual  crimi- 
nals "  and  those  men  and  women  whose  offenses  against  law  and 
morality  bring  them  often  into  the  police  courts,  seem  to  be  drug 
habitues,  according  to  the  testimony  of  police  authorities  and  hos- 
pital surgeons.  The  fact  that  most  of  these  people  have  become 
users  of  drugs  after  they  had  joined  the  ranks  of  the  "  under  world  " 
does  not  lessen  the  danger  to  society  of  the  situation.  The  testimony 
is  almost  unanimous  that  a  criminal  or  a  member  of  the  class  that 
preys  on  society  who  is  a  "  drug  fiend  "  is  the  hardest  to  reform, 
more  often  slips  back  into  a  criminal  life,  and  even  after  a  period  of 
respectability  will  commit  crime  to  obtain  money  to  purchase  the 
favorite  drug  if  out  of  work  and  unable  to  procure  it.  The  use  of 
narcotics  also  blunts  their  moral  sense,  so  that  few  even  desire  to 
reform,  being  satisfied  with  any  kind  of  life  that  permits  them  to 
get  and  enjoy  their  drug.  So  serious  is  this  feature  of  the  question 
of  drug  abuse  that  the  writer  earnestly  urges  that  legislation  be 
secured  to  entirely  prohibit  the  sale  of  narcotic  drugs  to  certain 
classes  of  people,  such  as  the  demi-monde,  known  criminals  or 
those  whose  occupation  is  "  shady."  Of  course  it  is  hard  to  decide 
what  a  man  is  by  looking  at  him,  but  druggists  in  certain  localities 
in  large  cities  certainly  learn  to  know  the  class  of  their  customers. 
The  weight  of  evidence  seems  to  be  that  an  habitual  drug  user  is 
more  apt  to  succumb  to  temptation  than  a  non-user;  their  moral 
sense  is  blunted  and  an  exaggerated  sense  of  selfishness  and  personal 
gratification  causes  them  to  place  their  desires  or  seeming  welfare 
above  all  else. 
While  it  has  not  been  practicable  to  obtain  exact  figures,  it  can  be 
stated  that  the  drug  habit  is  alarmingly  increasing  among  the  men 
of  our  army  and  navy.  The  number  of  men  using  opium  in  the 
army  has  greatly  increased  since  the  occupation  of  the  Philippines, 
many  "  opium  smokers  "  acquiring  the  habit  there  from  Chinese  or 
natives.  The  smoking  of  opium  by  the  men  of  the  navy  does  not 
seem  to  be  as  prevalent  as  in  the  army,  gum  opium  "  pills  "  or  mor- 
phine being  the  way  in  which  the  drug  is  mostly  used  by  sailors. 
Quite  a  number  of  enlisted  men  have  been  discharged  from  both 
