THE DRUG HABIT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2491, 3 May 1909, Page 5

THE DRUG HABIT.

VIEWS OF A CHRISTCHURCH DOCTOR,

Dr. Thacker, who for a good many years past has made a study of the effect of drugs upon the human system and has had a good deal of experience in dealing with victims of the drug habit, told a representative of the “Lyttelton Times” something about the drug's which were most frequently used and the nature of the efforts which doctors used to save these who have fallen under the spell of what is, perhaps the most insidious of all vices.

He-said that the three drugs in mostgeneral use were morphia, and with it the other drugs having their origin in the poppy, cocaine and, most popular of all, alcohol. As to how alcohol was procured he need say nothing. Every body knew how simple it was to procure. Laudanum and chiorodyne, medicines in common use, were permitted to be sold by chemists in any quantity up to one- dram, and there was nothing to prevent a man going to twenty chemists and buying a dram from each of them ; indeed, if he only went to a sufficient number of chemists there was nothing to prevent his acquiring a pint. It appeared to be easy to procure either morphia or cocaine, even in fair quantity, but how it was done would be just a little difficult to sav: He added that the habit usually had its beginning in the use of the hypodermic syringe for the relief of pain, even for the small pains such as neuralgia, either bv doctors or nurses. This was more particularly so in the case of female victims. The secret use of the syringe was as simple as it was insidious, and the doctors themselves very frequently came to grief through it. Dr. Thacker said that in the East, where the opium habit was almost universal, it did not appear to be attended with quite such bad results as it produced amongst Europeans. TV bile in San Francisco he had been taken to the room of a Chinese opium smoker and had seen him use the drug. When he entered with the guide they found the smoker asleep in his bunk; there were some cats in the bunk with him, also asleep. The guide woke him, and the doctor at once noticed that the pupils of his eyes were much dilated. As he roused himself to feel for his smoking utensils, the cats arose and strolled round him restlessly. First he put a lump of opium—the thick, treacly opium of commerce —upon a flat wire, and. having lighted a wick, set it in cocoa-oil, roasted it in the flame. The roasted opium was placed in the tiny china bowl of a long, thick-stemmed pipe and lighted at the lamp, and then the opium fiend set himself to gratify his craving. Pie sucked the fumes into his throat, and blew through the stem of liis pipe. As the fumes arose and thickened, the cats became strangely active, so that it seemed that they, too, knew the drug and enjoyed it. Presently both the smoker and his cats relaxed into slumber. So far as the man himself was concerned, the doctor noticed that his skin was very sallow, sallow almost to the verge of greyness, and that he perspired considerably as he slept. “Opium users,” Dr. Thacker remarked, “as a rule take little food, and while not under the influence of the drug are usually restless and irritable and distressed. And, of course* they suffer from insomnia—all drug users do. As liars the opium fiends beat the sufferers from alcoholism, and that takes more than a lot of doing! So gGod ai’e they as liars that they even believe that their own lies are the very truth. It may be remarked that drug fiends usually have in them a strain of insanity.”

Comparing the effects of the three drugs. Dr. Thacker said that those who use alcohol were usually less refined in mind than those who were victims of tire hvpodernric syringe. Many poets and writers had been sufferers from morpho-mania or cocaine-mania. For example. Sir Arthur Ccnon Doyle, himself a doctor, had made Sherlock Holmes use cocaine, and had made him get some of his most brilliant ideas while under its influence. But, how- - over refined the man might be before he took tlie drug, his certain end, if lie continued to use it, was the very lowest depths of moral degradation, and finally utter physical breakdown. ■Whether the drug used was morphia or cocaine this was certain to be the end Of its victim. „ , Cocaine, said Dr. 1 hacker, was much brighter in its effect than morphia, and the” morpho-maniac was liable to be a very morose, retiring man, one rather drowsy and sullen in his ways. In either case the outward signs are few, a contraction of the pupils of the eyes being the most noticeable. Drug fiends were usually diagnosed by detection rather than by any physical signs. There was always the risk, that as the effects of the drug began to tell, the users might get sordid and careless, taking no precautions, antiseptic or otherwise, and as a consequence it was not unusual to find a pustule formed, wherever the skin has been punctured by the needle of the syringe. Of. course, in cases of this sort the risk ot blood-poisoning was very great. “As in the case of alcoholism, added the doctor, “the chances of a cure being effected are very remote unless tlie patient can be 'kept under strict personal supervision and made to live an enforced sanitary life in some home or institution. Strength of mind is not a factor to he reckoned with, as the effects of the poison taken show on the mind as well as body. It- is peculiar that the first stop towards, a cure—a break in the use of the drug-—is made by the administration of another drug equally deadly and equally Honor fid. Thus the latest cure for cocam- i ism is hyoscine pushed to the very verge of poisoning. Alcohol is also used in cases of morphinism or coeainism, the patient being made very drunk; m thiff case almost to the greatest length compatible with safety. In cases uncic the syringe has been vised, the new drug has to be -administered through the mouth, and the process goes on more , through, mouth and less through syringe - until the use of the syringe has been abandoned altogether. Then the ml-, ministration of the other drug is gradually done away with until the patient | can do without either. Always the i person attempting the cure has to be careful that in staying one habit the patient is not made the victim of another. It must bo remembered that the , cocaine habit is a. very different thing from cocaine poisoning. I be . latter could easily result from the administration of coca ine for some small operation such- -as the drawing of a tooth, and is extremely dangerous, -vt first cocaine poisoning produces an over-driving oi the heart, and then comes paralysis. Dr. Thacker said that so far as he could judge' from his personal' experience the drug habit was fortunately not on the increase, but, equally unfortunately. he had of late years* noticed a great increase hr the number of those suffering from chronic alcoholism. He proceeded to‘outline the effect of M- j

cohol upon the system,-describing how it first stimulated and how as, the result of its containing a great quantity of sugar, it tended to produce a greatincrease in* the adipose tissue of tlio body of tiie drinker. The material of the muscle cells, the gland cells and the brain cells were changed into baser tissue, and the fat then enfiltrated tli rough these. On each successive occasion an increased amount of alcohol was required to produce the same effect of exhilaration, and in the prer sencc of liquor the drinker became depressed and irritable, and to get back to “par’'' had to repeat’ and increase the previous dose. Then the distributing outside nerve system began to lose its control and multiple neuritis followed, accompanied by shaky hands and lack of control over the muscles of the limbs. Eventually there came a paralysing influence on the central nervous system, and, if the patient went on long enough, that general paralysis of the brain, which was popularly known a« “softening of the brain.'’' . Alcoholism, the doctor said, was just as hard to cure as any other form of drug habit, and wan usually attempted by the administration of strychnine or atrophine hyperdermically. Sometimes the patient was kept under the influence of bromides, and slept for days, "but in such cases be had to be watched continually. and his circulation kept- right by the injection of strychnine. The sufferer had usually to enter some hospital or institution. This process of cure was said to have been invented by a. Dr. M’Bride, and Dr. Francis Hare, of Norwood Sanitoriym, the greatest living authority on alcoholism, had outlined it in this way:—“To have reasonable prospects of- success it is essential to have the patient removed from bis own home surrounding* and placed in a new environment under skilled supervision. For this reason the patient should he. induced to enter a hospital or sanatorium, or to board with a medical man who will exercise a control over him. Country surroundings are always best, and when the patient is recovering, open-air exercise, such as golf, is benefkient. A generous diet, daily warm baths, and regular hours of sleep and for meals are also necessary.” This treatment, Dr. Thacker added, was practically on the same lines as that administered at Pakatoa Island. Dr. Thacker went on to say that in his opinion, if alcoholism was to be kept down, it would be necessary for the State to exercise a very strict control over the quality of alcohol sold and to place it within the power of the publican to sell better liquor by reducing the amounts, demanded in rent and goodwill. “This will be the course upon which we will eventually have, t-c proceed,” he remarked, “irrespective of either prohibition or no-lieense. In Norway the whole of the spirits sold in the country are sold from Government bars. There is a Government bar in every hotel, and the sale ceases at noon an Saturdays and is not resumed until eight o’clock on Monday morning.' The wines and beers are all brewed or vinted in the country places by the folk themselves, and can be purchased at any time. The profits taken go to benefit the people as a whole, being Laid out in either public- parks or meeting-houses. There is no reason why this should not be done in New Zealand.” “In Norway,” he proceeded, "the whole front- of the drinking saloons is open to the street aud can be entered from any point. It is as if the whole block of hotel buildings had no front, so that one could either enter at any place or in strolling past could see at a glance who was within. This, again, is an example which New Zealand might well follow. As a testimonial to its efficacy I may state that I was for over three weeks in Norway and did not. during the whole of that time tee a rnan under the influence of intoxicants.” Questioned concerning chiorodyne drinking. Dr. Thacker said that- it was seldom taken at the same time as alcohol or when alcohol was procurable, but tbe victim of alcoholism, when unable to procure liquor, will fall back on all sorts of terrible beverages. Chiorodyne and painkiller both appealed to him very much, and he would even, drink kerosene or ‘Worcester sauce when nothing else was procurable.