Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 243, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1914 — Is Tobacco a Drug? [ARTICLE]

Is Tobacco a Drug?

” An interesting case of splitting hairs has arisen in Ireland in the administration of the national insurance act as to whether tobacco is a drug, a necessity or a luxury, all three views being taken by different authorities, says London Tit-Bits. It appears that the superintending medical officer of the Dublin district recommended that a consumptive patient coming under the provisions of the act be given tobacco for smoking to comfort him in his last days, offering to pay for the weed himself, but the Insurance committee decided that the tobacco was necessary to the patient’s treatment and sent in the bill to the Insurance commissioners. Two weeks later the local authorities received a lengthy communication demanding an explanation of their action in charging the government with a shilling’s worth of tobacco. Their reply was that tobacco was recognized as a drug in the British codex under the title of nicotians tabacium and that it had been prescribed by a registered practitioner. Thereupon the commissioners consulted learned K. C/s and they are still wrestling with the subject. Meanwhile the patient is dead, the tobacco has been smoked and the expense of the disputation has already reached a hundred times the cost of the original tin of shag.