Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 55

BfflDOPE theWorlds II Al I Over TfT AV Wickedest ILtheGlobe 1 UJUAY How Ether, Heroin and "Loco Weed Are Taken I America, klfS Which Is NwItoK Rd4 Flooding the djMtmWk tWTJL vf. Smuggled yif' Drugs MW'W in America, Which Is Flooding the Far East with Smuggled Drugs ETHEREAL Mimi uty Ja if ii'Fsff Ava 1 4 while India cultivates the non(), YjfiP- if while India cultivates the pounds of 3 I A popy on a vast scale, this opium were popy on a vast scale, this opium were produced dur I 4 opium is too low in opium is too low in A i morphine content to be ing the last NAN morphine content to be ing the last manufactured into drugs. However, the opium produced in Turkey, Persia, the Serb Croat Sloven? State, Greece, Turkestan and Afghanistan has a morphine content of from 12 to 16 per cent and is manufactured into drugs consumed in the Western countries as well as the Orient. Efforts to curtail poppy-growing in Persia and Turkey have met with TRAGIC PLIGHT Cocaine Victim Who Wat Rudely Awakened After Lying Unconscious for Hours on Floor of Waiting Room Cairo Ranroa'o Station. Paregoric, camphorated opium, which can legally be purchased in drug rtores in most States up to an ounce at a time, is a popular form of addiction, notwithstanding its sickening effects.

Bootleg heroin, containing one per cent of sugar of milk, is sold on the streets of the larger cities. In New York alone on one (jhort block known as "Heroin Row' hundreds of thousands of dollars' "vrorth. is peddled the street under vry noses of the authorities. Those familiar with the international drug situation say that America cannot ignore the growing of the opium poppy and coca tree and the manufacture of foreign drugs if she hopes to solve her own problem. At present the drug evil has become of such international importance that at least ten world-wide organizations are busy trying to extirpate the opium poppy.

The Permanent Central Opium Board, created within the League of Nations, met for the first time this month to tabulate data in the scientific worldwide survey of the drug problem. America hr.d been invited to nominate one representative on this committee, but her indifference to a problem which is considered of such vital importance was manifested by a refusal to accept this invitation. The European survey of the situation shows that opium-smoking in China, opium-eating in India and hasheesh consumption in the Far East are giving way to the more modern methods of dope taking, the injection of morphine and the sniffing of cocaine and heroin. A large amount of these manufactured drugs comet from America. The American Medical Association this Summer reported to the World's Conference on Narcotic Education that while 363 tons of narcotics were needed here for medicinal purposes, 8,600 tons had been manufactured in this The Flaming Ether in the Bowl Has Its Stimulating Effect on Flaming Youth as the Artist Conceives an "ether party" im the Bohemian Colony of New York City' Greenwich Village.

Cheese Cloth Is Placed Over the Bowl After the Ether Is Lighted and the Fumes Rise Slowly from tho Liquid. drug-ridden Peddlers sell openly on of the lareer eities and the streets narcotics are openly advertised. Recently the authorities found a drug cache in a sewer in Madrid. But probably the most lamentable of all is the irony of retaliation in regard to the influx of manufactured drugs into China. This country, erroneously, always has been given credit for spreading the opium evil throughout the world, and particularly in America.

Now the Western world is flooding China with manufactured drugs and the Chinese prefer th alkaloids of opium to opium itself I Medical authorities are agreed that spium smoking is possibly the least harmful of all forms of drug addiction. The greater part of the narcotic are consigned to Japan and smuggled into China. Japan, too, is given credit for having more drug manufacturers man anv other country, and is said to be hoarding great quantities of heroin and morphine. These drugs might become a formidable weapon in a war. In Egypt increasing intoxication in remote villages, from heroin, cocaine and hasheeish, has resulted in a dimuni-tion of 30 per cent of the cotton crop.

An Egyptian physician, Modinos, pointed out in the Academy of Medi-cin. Paris, that out of a population of 14.000.000 inhabitants, half a million made use of narcotics, that the pnsons 1 HE DOPE SEWER A Drug Addict Literally Driven to Underground Cover in Madrid, Where He Escaped the Authorities' Scrutiny. are gorged with addicts and millions are spent annually by the populace for the purchase of drugs. Medical, authorities say it takes a person ten years to become a drunkard, but onlv thirty days to become a drug addict. For the first few months no noticeable ill effects are apparent.

But soon (the drug begins to wreck body, mind 'and soul am) the average life of the drug addict, who must keep increasing his dosage to get the desired results, is a matter of two or threo years. kjp, ZS I UNTARNISHED BEAUTY Typical of Embryonic Addicts, th Lovelineti of Mix RhtihtW Wndt Wriedy Still Unmarrcd Aft.r First Few Weeks of Confessed Dope-Taking. Discovered in Massachusetts, She Told a Narcotic Squad Official She Was the Daughter of a Danish Nobleman. I Bruce Grant, author of this series of articles exposing the modern drug traffic, is a brilliant and versatile journalist who has made a penetrating study of his theme. Particularly noteworthy are bis statistics, which are official and up-to-date.

Other installments of his expose will be printed here from week to week. fly BRU CHANT. 'HE serpentine coils of the drug evil are winding themselves tighter and tighter around the world. In the United States, since the establishment of the dry law, an unprecedented increase in mental disorders and criminality ha3 resulted from the spread of dope-addiction. Heroin, the moat baleful of all drugs, is officially banned for general consumption, but, like outlawed liquor, is plentiful.

College school children and even bubips are tound among the lamentable 1,500.000 drug addicts in America. The illicit trade in and unlawful use of narcotics are all but ignored by the Amencan public. Liquor violations stir public sentimfnt far more than does the traffic in drugs. In some elements of society the taking of dope is con-gidcred "the smart thing," and in the larger cities lavish opium-smoking parties and morphine, cocaine and heroin revels are patronized by the "try-anything-once" society set In Bohemian colonies marihuana Mexican "loco weed" enlivens many a festivity and' in 6ome cliques ether orgies, rivaling the saturnalias of decadent Roman days, are part of the "artistic" mode of living. Although ether addiction has long been a problem, particularly in hospitals, a new means of enjoying its effects has been discovered.

There are addicts who like to pour it over ice cream or sniff it. In Greenwich Village, New York City, the celebrants gather in a room where a large bowl of ether holds the center of the stage. A piece of cheese cloth is placed over the bowl, the ether is lighted, all lights are turned out and cracks and crevices stuffed up. The fumes from the burning ether drive the men and women love-mad and wild scenes ensue. The American public has sought out every form of drug from which ft might get a kick.

In some places aspirin is powdered, mixed with cigarette tobacco and smoked. The younger element of gunmen claims it steels their nerves. Veronal drunks are read of in the newspapers frequently. HANDS AND THE Milady Powders Her Nose la Cocaine. Pop in Compact.

year. In some cities 25 per cent of the population is dependent on the opium trade, while opium constitutes from 20 to 25 per cent of total exports. Persia has consented to substitute another crop for the poppy if something can be found which will bring as much revenue. So far nothing has been found. Although in 1917 poppy-growing had stopped entirely under the law in China there has been a recrudescence of cultivation during the revolution.

The militarists ordered farmers at the point of bayonets to grow iie poppy because of its quick return such times of uncertainty. With the revenue which accrued from poppy-growing the militarists purchased arms tion tor tPeir fight against the Central Government. The annual illicit crop in China is now estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000 tons. This opium has a morphine content of only 8 per cent, and is not used for the manufacture of drugs. Switzerland is turning out an unprecedented quantity of manufactured drugs.

The Health Committee of the League of Nutions estimates for medical uses a consumption of 450 milligrammes of opium having a morphine content of 10 per cent and seven milligrammes of cocaine per capita per annum. This would mean for Switzerland a total of 72 kiloo per annum in place of 3,757 kilos actually manufactured, and 9 kilos of heroin in place of 3,310. Spain, despite stringent laws, is uiiil iininiuni- in Tlri aco only 1.G0J tons 1,1 tbese countries in the mpst alarming manner. "pr 4 Til SiKiy. NEW VICE.

IN OLD WORLD Official Photo of a Round-Up of 300 Cocaine Addicts in Cairo. Manufactured Drugs Now Flood Egypt, Which Was Formerly Addicted to Hasheesh, Principally. FLOATING ON A PUFF A Drag on a Marihuana Cigarette Puts the Smoker "on high." But This American-Grown Species of Hasheesh Soon Exacts Its Price in Forfeited Beauty, as Shown in This Exclusive Photo. Marihuana, or "Loco Weed," Is the Most Easily Accessible of Dope; It is Grown in Window Boxes and Back Yards. Of this number 1,889 were there for violation of the drug act, and 1,882 for violation of the prohibition act." In smuggled drugs, which enter this country by every conceivable method, the Treasury Department is losing millions annually.

And it costs millions more to enforce the anti-drug laws. Students of the situation say that the only solution is co-operation Pertinent Statement Made by President van Wettum at First Geneva Opium Conference. with the international bodies which are trying to stamp out the evil. The international survey has shown that Persia, Turkey and several East European countries now consider the cultivation of the poppy of the greatest economic importance. Although oe-tween 50 and 90 per cent of the opium of the world is produced in China, FOUR PHOTOS heaktaf the Morphine Solution Cagarette-Ligttor.

with a Ospirlalit, UN. lattraitlanu Imiui. iu.ju.j4,j-ai'.i MMMmitlmm actually had been nanufactured, while 375 tons were calculated as sufficient to supply medical needs. Some of the excess finds its way to China and India. Statistics show a definite increase In the drug traffic within American boundaries.

A. H. MacCormick, assistant director of the Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice, reports "During the fiscal year ending June 30, 19-9, 7,609 prisoners were committed to our Fe'deral institutions. DEADLY NARCOTICS Preparing MorpUn For the Hypodef Needle. 11 navav.ji..uAat 4 frigid indifference on the part of government officials.

Turkey is the third largest producer of opium. In Persia something like 3,000,000 TAKEN IN MADRID Filling, tho Hypodermic the "Shot." Needle) for sum, brut Btiuis Blibls auartaa. iSilliii ill ''''(' i.