^pteZeVfmT' }    Number  and  Kind  of  Drug  Addicts.  417 
a  year.  The  State  of  Tennessee  contains  slightly  more  than  two 
per  cent,  of  the  total  population 'of  the  United  States,  and,  on  the 
supposition  that  the  same  ratio  of  addicts  and  the  amount  of  material 
consumed  will  hold  good  throughout  the  country,  we  would  have  a 
total  of  something  more  than  nS,ooo  drug  habitues  consuming  ap- 
proximately 1,416,000,000  average  doses  per  year. 
Granting  the  somewhat  improbable  assertion  that  ninety  per  cent, 
of  the  opium  imported  is  used  illegitimately  at  the  rate  that  it  is  said 
to  be  consumed  in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  we  could  have  as  a 
maximum  not  more  than  187,000  users  of  opium,  its  derivatives  and 
alkaloids,  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 
In  regard  to  the  use  of  cocaine,  a  recent  authority  asserts  that  one 
ounce  of  cocaine  is  enough  to  keep  fifty  fiends  thoroughly  well  doped 
for  a  week,  or,  in  other  words,  that  one  ounce  of  cocaine  is  enough 
to  keep  one  fiend  thoroughly  well  doped  for  a  year. 
Granting  that  all  of  the  vailable  150,000  ounces  of  cocaine  were 
used  illegitimately,  there  could  be,  at  this  rate,  a  total  of  150,000 
cocaine  fiends  in  the  United  States. 
That  this  estimate  is  somewhat  high  would  appear  from  the 
report  by  C.  G.  Steinmetz,  Jr.,4  who  made  a  study  of  fifteen  cases  of 
cocaine  habit  acquired  by  men  employed  where  the  drug  was  manu- 
factured. The  daily  quantity  taken  varied  from  twenty  to  sixty 
grains ;  the  method  of  taking  was  solely  by  snuffing  it.  Even  on  the 
basis  of  the  lower  quantity  the  consumption  per  annum  would  be  in 
the  neighborhood  of  fifteen  ounces  and  thus  reduce  the  possible 
number  of  cocaine  fiends  very  materially. 
Pharmacists  who  have  been  unfortunate  enough  to  meet  with 
patients  addicted  to  the  use  of  cocaine  will  appreciate  that  the  figures 
given  by  Steinmetz  are  much  more  nearly  in  accord  with  actual  prac- 
tices than  are  the  figures  previously  quoted.  Taking  all  the  available 
facts  into  consideration,  it  would  appear  that  the  estimate  made  by 
the  committee  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  some 
years  ago,  that  the  drug  addicts  in  this  country  do  not  exceed  200,000 
in  number  is  approximately  correct  even  at  the  present  time. 
That  other  previously-made  estimates  of  the  number  of  drug  ad- 
dicts in  this  country  were  altogether  erroneous  is  further  evidenced  by 
the  published  reports  on  hospital  admissions  since  the  Federal  anti- 
narcotic  law  came  into  effect.    It  had  been  predicted  that  the  result 
4  J.  Am.  M.  Assoc.,  1915,  vol.  64,  p.  1271. 
