Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 214, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1919 — New Curb on the Drug Traffic [ARTICLE]

New Curb on the Drug Traffic

Rules to Make Mores Effective Provisions of Harrison Law Being Framed. COURT DECISIONS HELP OUT - - - - t ■ • J 2 * < Assist the Internal Revenue Bu retu tn Defining Its Power Clearly—Leave No Loopholes for Quacks or Unscrupulous Physicians. Washington.—The bureau of internal revenue is framing new regulations make~nibreneffectrve the provlsions of the Harrison narcotic law as amended February 24, 1919. The regulations will describe* more fully the details of registration and stamping of drug packages and will tend to enable the bureau to keep closer track of physicians who are prescribing drugs. Court Decisions Help. Recent decisions by the United States Supreme court have helped the bureau by defining its power clearly. The recent decision in the case of Bascom C. Thompson is the first to expound the legal rights of a physician in prescribing drugs. It declared a physician cannot prescribe drugs simply to relieve the cravings of an addict, and that prescriptions for that purpose can be issued only- on a speclal blank furnished by the commissioner of internal revenue. . . The bureau has been hampered in its pursuit of illegitimate traffic in drugs through the ignorance or Indifference of the public lo the extent to which drug habits have grown and

the evils attendant thereon. Even in medical circles there are still old-fashioned-doctors who do not appreciate the evils of the habit or the ease with which it is contracted. The Harrison law has a moral object in view as well as the collection of revenue. Its constitutionality has been upheld by the Supreme court as no invasion of the police powers of the states, as it is. a revenue act. The new regulations will emphasize the necessity for a physician to give his personal attention to curing a patient

of the drug habit. Confinement for the patient will be insisted upon, without which, in the opinion of leading physicians, no patient can be cured effectively. ......... Leave No Loopholes. The regulations will be issued soon. Every effort will be made not to interfere with the recognized medical necessity for the use of drugs, without at the same time leaving any loophole by which quacks or unscrupulous physicians may dispense drugs purely for the satisfaction of addicts and for gain to themselves. Numerous cases have been brought to the attention of the bureau where* physicians have prescribed drugs in alleged attempts to cure addicts, and have dispensed them by mail or express. This practice is a violation of the spirit of the law and is- only a blind to “cover Illegitimate traffic. The bureau intends to curb all activities which enable a physician to take undue advantage of his licensed power. ~