Sign the Resolution for a Federal Commission on Drug Policy
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The New York Times March 15, 1911It is not pleasant to be told, as Mr. Hamilton Wright, Federal Opium
Commissioner, has told us, that "Uncle Same is the worst drug fiend in the
world," consuming yearly more opium than China or any other nation. The United States
uses 500,000 pounds annually in one form or another, a hundredfold more than prescribed by
physicians. Mr. Wright judges that "at least one druggist out of every ten exists by
means of profits from the sale of habitforming drugs, of which, of course, opium and its
derivatives are most important."
That is why we fear that Assemblyman Boylan's bill, No. 983, to amend the Public Health
law with respect to the sale of hypodermic syringes and needles, will not pass. It
provides that none of these instruments for the injection of opiates shall be disposed of
at retail without the written order of a duly licensed physician or veterinarian, and that
each sale shall be registered with the name and address of the buyer. We hope that the
bill will survive the powerful, but secret opposition that it will meet in the
Legislature.
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