Not least among these preparations that have most importantly contributed to the tragic army of drug-users in the United States have been various diarrhea remedies and other bowel correctives containing a large amount of straight opium. Morphine, opium, and heroin appear in many cough-mixtures in habit-forming quantities and are offered for sale everywhere save in New York State, where recent legislation somewhat restricts the traffic. Indeed, in every State except New York there are few druggists who do not make up and sell preparations of their own containing codeine, morphine, heroin, or some of the derivatives of opium.
No druggist has a right to prescribe any of these powerful drugs. The American public has fallen into the bad habit of trusting the druggist when it should go to the physician. A dozen times every day in the experience of the average American druggist a customer enters who says, “I want something to make me sleep,” or, “I want something to cure my headache.” Without hesitation, and without blame, for with him the custom has probably been unconsciously built up, the druggist reaches to his shelf and dispenses preparations in which the utmost peril lurks—preparations containing ingredients which should be sold only on the prescription of a physician. Under the present law, as I think it exists in every State, druggists cannot prescribe, but they can advise customers to purchase advertised preparations and those which they themselves compound.
Only a very powerful drug can stop a headache as quickly and completely as Americans have come to demand. The preparation must be strong enough to deaden disordered nerves, and being chosen because it will be generally effective, not selectively effective, as in the case of a remedy chosen after an intelligent diagnosis has revealed the nature of the trouble to be treated, it is virtually certain to have no curative qualities whatever. Hundreds of deaths have resulted from unwisely experimenting with such preparations. Most of us have peculiar idiosyncrasies with regard to certain drugs. I have seen patients who could not take so much as two grains of veronal or trional without flushing, itching, and similar symptoms. With such people large doses might bring about serious results and even death.
CHAPTER XIII
PSYCHOLOGY OF ADDICTION
The common idea that one who is struggling with a drug or alcohol habit needs sympathy and psychological encouragement is totally at variance with the facts. No one has ever accomplished anything worth while by holding the hand of an alcoholic, and any one who is endeavoring to help a case of this sort will find himself instantly and seriously handicapped if he puts himself in intimate personal relationship with his patient. Social intercourse in any degree should be tabooed. The physician should never take a meal with any of his patients, or visit a theater with them, or take a drive with them. I have never made a friend of one of my patients, although among them have been many whom I should be glad to number among my friends; and no man would go further to help them than I.
Personally, I have never been an excessive alcoholic. It is an interesting fact that many men endeavoring to deal with people of this class use as a bait the statement that they themselves have been victims. Their usual claim is that they first cured themselves, and then took up the work of curing others. I remember a meeting of social-service workers in Boston that I was invited to address. I made a statement to this effect in the course of my talk and greatly offended a previous speaker who had emitted the usual professional patter concerning his original self-cure. I was quite willing to compare with him the results of our methods of treatment, but had no opportunity so to do.
HEREDITARY TENDENCIES TOWARD ADDICTION AN IMPOSSIBILITY