420  Number  and  Kind  of  Drug  Addicts.    { ^ptembe/igiT' 
that  the  taking  of  even  small  doses  of  opium  or  morphine,  at  regular 
intervals,  for  a  continued  length  of  time  will  be  more  likely  to 
develop  the  opium  habit  than  the  occasional  indulgence  in  large 
quantities. 
It  has  been  asserted  s  that  the  average  person  will  develop  an 
addiction  to  opium  or  one  of  its  alkaloids  after  thirty  days  of  daily 
use,  and  that  after  the  continued  use  of  such  a  drug  for  three  months 
or  more  it  is  practically  impossible  to  discontinue  its  use  without 
medical  aid. 
With  these  several  possibilities  fairly  well  established,  it  would 
appear  to  be  unfortunate  to  endorse  or  even  to  countenance  ex- 
ception clauses  in  anti-narcotic  laws,  such  as  Section  6  of  the  Federal 
law,  which  permit  of  the  indiscriminate  sale  or  distribution  of 
preparations  that  not  alone  may,  but  positively  will,  establish  a 
habit  that,  once  established,  cannot  readily  be  overcome. 
In  the  Federal  anti-narcotic  law  we  have  the  possibility  of  an 
accurate  survey  of  existing  conditions  in  connection  with  the  use  and 
abuse  of  certain  narcotic  drugs.  The  findings,  if  they  can  be  made  a 
matter  of  record,  will  place  the  blame  for  the  illicit  use  of  the  pro- 
scribed drugs  where  it  rightfully  belongs,  and  will  suggest  ways  and 
means  for  correcting  existing  abuses. 
To  secure  efficient  restrictions  on  the  sale  and  distribution  of 
narcotics,  and  to  demonstrate  that  they  are  not  primarily  to  blame  for 
the  generation  and  continuation  of  the  addiction  referred  to,  phar- 
macists individually  should  not  alone  be  willing  to  comply  with 
existing  requirements  under  the  law,  but  should  see  to  it  that  others 
engaged  in  the  same  line  of  business  comply  fully  with  the  spirit  as 
well  as  the  letter  of  existing  laws  and  regulations. 
There  can  be  no  gainsaying  the  fact  that  the  amounts  of  opium 
and  of  coca  consumed  annually  in  this  country  are  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  actual  need  for  medicinal  purposes,  but  to  locate  the 
existing  leaks  the  followers  of  all  branches  of  medicine,  and  par- 
ticularly the  men  engaged  in  the  practice  of  pharmacy,  must  make 
consistent  and  persistent  efforts  to  purge  themselves  of'  even  the 
suspicion  of  being  directly  or  indirectly  to  blame  for  existing  abuses. 
Pettey,  G.  E.,  /.  Am.  M.  Assoc.,  1913,  vol.  61,  p.  566. 
