486 
Acquirement  of  Drug  Habits. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I     October,  1903. 
so  through  example  of  teaching  of  others  or  from  having  read 
accounts  of  the  wonderful  stimulating  properties  cocaine  has  on 
the  mind  and  the  body.  The  use  of  cocaine  seems  to  be  rapidly 
supplanting  in  part  the  use  of  morphine  among  men  and  women  of 
the  "  under  world,"  and  the  writer  knows  personally  of  two  cases 
of  men  who  acquired  the  cocaine  habit  from  lewd  women  they 
visited  habitually.  A  very  common  form  in  which  cocaine  is  used 
by  this  class  is  that  of  a  «« snuff,"  the  cocaine  being  finely  powdered 
and  diluted  with  some  inert  powder,  this  being  a  conveniently  port- 
able and  easily  used  form.  A  powder  containing  fully  50  per 
cent,  of  cocaine  is  sold  in  large  quantities  to  a  certain  class  of  men 
and  women — the  "  powers  that  prey  " — under  the  name  of  "Bright- 
eye,"  from  the  effect  of  the  drug  in  giving  the  eyes  a  temporary 
brilliancy. 
Most  of  the  cocaine  used  by  these  people  they  buy  undisguisedly 
as  such,  there  being  plenty  of  drug  stores  where  they  can  buy  cocaine, 
morphine,  etc.,  as  easily  as  epsom  salts.  The  writer  knows  of  one 
drug  store  in  Philadelphia  where  regular  customers  can  enter  and 
get  cocaine  without  any  formality  but  the  payment  of  its  price. 
Holding  up  one  finger  means  the  party  wants  a  "  five-cent  powder  ;  " 
two  fingers,  ten  cents'  worth ;  three,  fifteen  cents,  and  so  on,  the 
mere  holding  up  of  the  fingers  in  the  initiated  way  being  enough  I 
This  druggist  buys  cocaine  in  100-ounce  lots — from  a  supposedly 
reputable  (?)  manufacturer !  Personally,  the  writer  is  sorry  to  be 
forced  to  admit  that  the  majority  of  drug  stores  will  fill  a  prescrip- 
tion calling  for  cocaine,  even  in  unusual  amounts,  with  little  remark 
save  saying  "  the  price  of  this  will  be  a  little  high."  In  one  large 
Eastern  city,  out  of  about  twenty-five  stores  visited,  only  in  four  was 
there  any  question  as  to  having  a  prescription  calling  for  fifteen  and 
twenty  grains  of  cocaine  "  to  be  used  as  directed,  in  eyes,"  etc., 
put  up  and  handed  him.  Not  even  a  word  of  caution  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  drug  was  vouchsafed.  This  is  not  an  accusation  or 
a  sensational  assertion,  it  is  simply  the  statement  of  actual  expe- 
rience. 
It  has  seemed  to  the  writer,  after  a  little  delving  into  the  facts  of 
the  supply  of  drugs  to  habitues,  that  the  retail  druggist  is  far  less  to 
blame  than  the  manufacturer  or  wholesale  dealer.  While  many 
druggists  are  careless  in  selling  drugs  and  salve  their  conscience 
when  selling  to  a  "  fiend  "  by  saying,  "  if  I  don't,  some  one  else  will," 
