70 
A nti-Narcofic  Lcoislatioii. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
\    February, 1911. 
authority  in  connection  with  the  Department  of  State  for  the  pur- 
pose of  investigating  the  general  subject  and  reporting  to  the  Presi- 
dent the  result  of  his  investigation,  has  made  a  very  careful  study  of 
the  general  subject  and  he  has  published  from  time  to  time  statistics 
that  are  most  interesting  and  which,  I  believe,  will  have  the  effect 
of  arousing  a  great  public  sentiment  on  this  question.  Dr.  Wright 
has  made  a  most  thorough  investigation,  and  great  credit  is  due  to 
him  and  the  Department  of  State  for  what  he  has  already  accom- 
plished. We  find  from  Dr.  Wright's  statistics  that,  during  the 
period  from  i860  to  1869,  there  was  imported  into  the  United  States 
1,425,196  pounds  of  opium  of  all  forms,  and,  during  the  period 
from  1900  to  1909,  there  was  imported  6,435,623  pounds  of  opium. 
This,  you  will  see,  is  an  increase  of  351  per  cent,  of  opium  im- 
ported into  this  country,  while  the  population  of  the  country  during 
the  same  periods  shows  only  an  increase  of  133  per  cent.  There 
are  in  the  United  States  to-day  ab.out  120,000  Chinese,  35  per  cent, 
of  whom  smoke  about  100,000  pounds  every  year.  As  I  said  a  few 
moments  ago,  it  was  discovered  in  i860  that  smoking  opium  had 
been  adopted  by  the  lower  classes  of  the  whites  and  negroes  of  this 
country,  and  this  has  grown  so  that  we  are  told  to-day  that  there 
are  about  150,000  Americans  who  smoke  annually  about  68,000 
pounds  of  opium.  We  frequently  find,  especially  along  the  Pacific 
coast,  white  women  who  are  living  with  Chinamen  and  smoking 
opium. 
It  will  be  interesting  to  note,  by  way  of  comparison,  what  effect 
opium  has  on  the  other  countries.  Italy,  with  a  population  of  about 
33,000,000,  imports  and  uses  but  6000  pounds  of  opium.  Austria- 
Hungary,  with  a  population  of  about  46,000,000,  uses  between  3000 
and  4000  pounds  of  opium.  Germany,  with  a  population  of  about 
60,000,000,  uses  about  17,000  pounds  of  opium  a  year,  and  Holland, 
with  a  population  of  about  6,000,000,  imports  and  uses  but  3000 
pounds  per  annum.  To  the  credit  of  all  of  these  old  countries,  it 
can  be  said  that  they  have  the  strictest  laws  regulating  the  sale  of 
habit-forming  drugs. 
It  is  appalling  when  we  consider  that  in  the  United  States  with 
a  population  of  about  90,000,000  people,  we  consume  the  enormous 
quantity  of  over  400,000  pounds  of  opium  every  year — more  than 
all  the  other  countries  I  have  mentioned  put  together.  It  has  been 
conservatively  estimated  that  only  25  per  cent,  of  this  enormous 
amount  can  find  any  legitimate  use  and  that  the  balance  of  300,000 
