488 
Proposed  Anti-Narcotic  Law. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
I     October,  1903. 
the  recognition  by  the  law  of  the  fact  that  many  drug  fiends  delight 
in  teaching  others  the  use  of  their  favorite  drug,  and  the  enactment 
of  some  legal  means  for  checking  this  danger  by  adequate  punish- 
ment of  the  guilty.  The  writer  has  learned  of  too  many  cases  where 
persons  have  learned  a  use  of  the  drug  from  an  habitue,  and  he 
believes  that  this  factor  in  the  increase  of  drug  abuse  has  not  been 
properly  considered.  It  is  certainly  worthy  of  careful  study  and 
prompt  action  to  prevent  its  effects  from  becoming  still  more  alarm- 
ing. 
It  may  seem  pessimistic,  but  the  facts  certainly  seem  to  bear  out 
the  assertion  that  the  only  remedy  for  the  present  widespread 
increase  in  the  use  of  narcotic  drugs  is  in  the  enactment  of  stringent 
laws  to  throw  as  many  difficulties  as  possible  around  the  obtaining 
of  such  drugs  for  any  purpose,  the  provision  of  exceedingly  severe 
penalties  for  the  sale  of  narcotic  drugs  for  any  purposes  but  medicinal, 
and  for  any  advice,  practice  or  teaching  that  will  cause  non-users  to 
become  habitues  and  rigid  enforcement  of  every  penalty  to  its  full 
extent.  When  one  considers  the  number  of  ruined  lives  and  homes 
caused  by  our  loose  laws  and  practices,  the  price  of  a  little  incon- 
venience or  annoyance  in  the  obtaining  of  some  drug  for  lawful  pur- 
poses seems  a  very  small  one  to  pay. 
DRAFT  OF  A  PROPOSED  ANTI-NARCOTIC  LAW. 
By  J.  H.  BEAiv. 
The  following  is  the  draft  of  a  law  to  provide  against  the  evils 
resulting  from  the  traffic  in  certain  narcotic  drugs,  which  was  pre- 
sented by  J.  H.  Beal  to  the  Section  on  Education  and  Legislation  of 
the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  August,  1903: 
Section  i.  That  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  person,  firm  or  corporation  to 
sell,  furnish  or  give  away  any  cocaine,  salts  of  cocaine,  or  preparations  of  any 
cocaine  or  salts  of  cocaine,  or  any  morphine,  salts  of  morphine,  or  preparations 
containing  any  morphine  or  salts  of  morphine,  or  any  opium  or  preparations 
containing  opium,  or  any  chloral  hydrate  or  preparations  containing  chloral 
hydrate,  except  upon  the  original  written  order  or  prescription  of  a  lawfully 
authorized  practitioner  of  medicine,  dentistry  or  veterinary  medicine,  which 
order  or  prescription  shall  be  dated  and  shall  contain  the  name  of  the  person 
for  whom  prescribed,  or  if  ordered  by  a  practitioner  of  veterinary  medicine, 
shall  state  the  kind  of  animal  for  which  ordered,  and  shall  be  signed  by  the 
person  giving  the  prescription  or  order.  Such  written  order  or  prescription 
shall  be  permanently  retained  on  file  by  the  person,  firm  or  corporation  who 
