Many professional men use cocaine. It is a favorite with writers. It often shows in their work. Those who write under the inspiration of this drug often do some good work, but they are unable to keep to their subject. Their writings lack order. We have enough of such writings to have them classified as "cocaine literature."
If there are 4,000,000, or even fewer, of these people in our land, it is a serious problem, for every one is a degenerate, to a certain degree. If the medical profession and the druggists would co-operate it would be easy enough to prevent the growth of a new crop of dope fiends. Of course, people would have to stop taking patent medicines, which often start the victims on the road to degeneration. Then the physicians should stop prescribing habit-forming drugs, as well as all other drugs, and teach the people that physical, mental and moral salvation come through right living and right thinking.
Unfortunately the medical profession is careless and is responsible for the existence of many of the drug addicts. A patient has a severe pain. What is the easiest way to satisfy him? To give a hypodermic injection of some opiate. The patient, not realizing the danger, demands a pain-killer every time he suffers. He soon learns what he is getting and then he goes to the drug store and outfits himself with a hypodermic outfit and drugs, and the first thing he knows he is a slave, in bondage for life. This is no exaggeration. There are hundreds of thousands of victims to the drug habit who trace their downfall to the treatment received at the hands of reputable physicians, who do not look upon their practice with the horror it should inspire because it is so common. Doctors do not always bury their mistakes. Some of them walk about for years.
In spite of laws against the sale of various drugs, they can be obtained. There are doctors and druggists of easy conscience who are very accommodating, for a price.
There is no legitimate need for the use of one-hundredth of the amount of these drugs that is now consumed. A local injection of cocaine for a minor operation is justifiable, but none of the habit-forming drugs should be used in ordinary practice to kill pain, for the proper application of water in conjunction with right living will do it better and there are no evil after effects. Massage is often sufficient.
To show a little more clearly how some people become addicted to drugs, let us consider one of the latest, heroin: A few years ago this drug, which is an opium derivative, was practically unknown. It is much stronger than morphine and consequently the effect can be obtained more quickly by means of a smaller dose. Physicians thought at first that it was not a habit-forming drug, for they could use it over a longer period of time than they could employ morphine, without establishing the craving and the habit. So they began to prescribe heroin instead of morphine, and many a morphine addict was advised to substitute heroin. All went well for a short while, until the victims found that they were enslaved by a drug that was even worse than morphine. Now, thanks chiefly to the medical profession, it is estimated that we have in our land several hundred thousand heroin addicts. Sallow of face, gaunt of figure, looking upon the world through pin-point pupils, with all of life's beauty, hope and joy gone, they are marching to premature death.
The medical profession furnishes more than its proportion of drug addicts. They know the danger of the drugs, but familiarity breeds contempt. If the public but knew how many of their medical advisers, who should always be clear-minded, are befuddled by drugs, there would be a great awakening. One eminent physician who has now been in practice about forty-five years and has had much experience with drug addicts, has said that according to his observations, about one physician in four contracts the drug habit. I believe this is exaggerated, but I am acquainted with a number of physicians who are addicts.
Physicians who smoke do not condemn the practice. Those who drink are likely to prescribe beer and wine for their patients. Those who are addicted to drugs use them too liberally in their practice.
Those who have watched the effects of the various drugs, from coffee to heroin, must condemn their use. It is true that an occasional cup of coffee or tea, a glass of wine or beer does no harm. A cigarette a week would not hurt a boy, nor would on occasional cigar harm a man. But how many people are willing to indulge occasionally? The rule is that they indulge not only daily, but several times a day, and the results are bad. One bad habit leads to another, and the time always comes when it is a choice between disease and early death on one hand, and the giving up of the bad habits on the other, and when this time comes the bonds of habits are often so strong that the victim is unable to break them.
I realize that knowledge will not always keep people out of temptation and that some individuals will take the broad way that leads to destruction in spite of anything that may be said. Youth is impatient of restraint and ever anxious for new experiences. Regarding this serious matter of destructive drug use, much could be done by teaching people their place in society: That is, what they owe to themselves, their families and the public in general. In other words, teach the young people the higher selfishness, part of which consists of considerable self-control, self-denial and self-respect.