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The New York Times May 14, 1923
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1,500,000 DRUG USERS IN AMERICA, HE SAYS
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Dr. Van Dyke Deplores "Amazing Prevalence" Among Young Persons-- Urges World
Fight.
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Special to The New York Times.
PRINCETON, N.J., May 13,-- "No Country suffers more from the narcotic
drug evil than the United States," declared Dr. Henry Van Dyke, here today. He said
it was estimated that there are at least 1,500,000 drug addicts in this country, many of
them boys and girls.
Dr. Van Dyke endorsed the League of Nations Commission as a means to cope with the growing
evil. "Before the war," he said, "Germany was the barrier to effective
legislation because of her refusal to co-operate with the other nations interested in
suppressing the traffic."
As remedies, he advocated a resolution of the production of the opium poppy, and stricter
enforcement of existing laws. The amazing prevalence of the use of opiates by young
persons, Dr. Van Dyke said, is one of the chief problems that faces those who are trying
to establish an efficient and effective method to control drugs and the distribution of
raw opium and opium products.
"The only way to check this evil," he said, "is by international
co-operation in addition to domestic legislation. As long as the poppy is grown to an
amount that is more than ten times as much as is needed for medicinal uses, so long will
this overproduction menace the world with a flood of dope. It will leak through every
barrier of law, and smugglers and peddlers will make their profit out of it.
"The existing laws in this country aiming at the control of the traffic are probably
the best in the world. The need is not for more laws, but for a stricter enforcement of
those we have."
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