72 
A nti-Na rcotic  L c gisla tion . 
jAm.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I    February,  1911. 
been  found  in  the  school-room ;  for  in  our  own  city  we  found 
schoolchildren  buying  cocaine  from  negroes  in  five  and  ten  cent 
packages. 
These  statements  are  made  with  the  idea  of  arousing  a  sentiment 
on  this  general  subject  ;  for,  if  it  is  not  checked,  no  one  can  tell  to 
what  extent  the  evil  is  going  to  affect  this  country  and  its  people. 
It  is  known  that  the  drug  habit  is  a  sort  of  a  secret  habit  and 
all  people  who  use  drugs  do  so  with  the  greatest  secrecy.  The 
best  step  that  can  be  taken  is  to  eliminate  the  secrecy  as  much  as 
possible,  and  I  desire  to  express  my  appreciation  to  the  newspapers 
of  Pennsylvania  for  having  given  the  general  crusade  against  cocaine 
so  much  publicity ;  for  I  know  of  nothing  that  will  help  to  eliminate 
this  terrible  habit  among  our  people  more  than  publicity. 
There  should  be  an  agreement  between  nations  so  that  smuggling 
of  opium  will  be  impossible ;  secondly,  we  should  have  a  Federal 
law  to  control  the  interstate  traffic ;  and,  third,  we  should  have  a  uni- 
form interstate  law ;  because,  of  course,  the  national  government 
can  only  control  interstate  commerce,  but  cannot  control  interstate 
trade.  Next  we  must  have  laws  that  will  be  far-reaching  and  will 
carry  with  them  severe  punishments,  and  we  must  have  eternal  vigi- 
lance and  honest,  capable,  trustworthy  officials  to  enforce  the  law. 
At  this  time  I  desire  to  express  my  great  appreciation  for  the  noble 
work  done  in  hunting  out  the  sellers  of  opium  and  cocaine  by  the 
Department  of  Public  Safety  of  Philadelphia.  The  Director  of  that 
Department  and  his  assistants  have  been  untiring  in  their  efforts  to 
co-operate  with  the  State  Pharmaceutical  Board,  and  the  records  of 
the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  of  Philadelphia  County  will  show 
that  a  great  many  of  them  have  been  punished  and  a  great  many 
more  are  still  to  be  punished  when  the  cases  are  tried. 
President  Taft  has  appointed  delegates  to  the  International  Opium 
Congress,  and  we  believe  that  an  international  agreement  will  be  the 
result. 
In  framing  legislation  we  should  remember  that  drug  fiends  are 
largely  the  victims  of  circumstances  and  are  more  to  be  pitied  than 
censured ;  but  the  careless  physician  who  prescribes  cocaine  or 
morphine,  or  the  careless  pharmacist  who  refills  prescriptions  for 
cocaine  and  morphine,  are  the  ones  who  should  be  severely  dealt 
with,  and  the  sale  of  patent  and  proprietary  remedies  doped  with 
morphine  and  cocaine  should  be  prohibited  and  the  manufacturers 
should  be  severely  punished,  for  we  find  proprietary  remedies 
