Habits that Handicap: The Menace of Opium, Alcohol, and Tobacco, and the Remedy — John Shaqi
Habits that Handicap: The Menace of Opium, Alcohol, and Tobacco, and the RemedyTowns, Charles Barnes
Science
Habits that Handicap: The Menace of Opium, Alcohol, and Tobacco, and the Remedy
Towns, Charles Barnes
Alcoholism; Opium abuse -- United States; Tobacco use
There is only one way by means of which humanity can be relieved of the
curse of drug using, and that is to adopt methods putting the entire
responsibility upon the doctor. Until the present legislation was passed
in New York State, no one had ever considered the doctor's responsibility;
this most valuable medical asset and most terrible potential curse had
been virtually without safeguard of any effective kind. Discussion of the
drug problem in the press dealt wholly with those phases which make
themselves manifest in the underworld or among the Chinese. I am
reasonably certain that until very recently the world had heard nothing of
the blameless men and women who had become drug-users as the result of
illness. This seems strange, since there are in the United States more
victims of the drug habit than there are of tuberculosis. It is estimated
that fifteen per cent, of the practising physicians in the country are
addicted to the habit, and although I think this is an exaggeration, it is
nevertheless true that habit-forming drugs demand a heavy toll from the
medical profession, wrecking able practitioners in health and reputation,
and of course seriously endangering the public.
I have elsewhere explained the fact that the medical man himself is
ignorant of the length to which he can safely go in the administration of
drugs to his patients. If he is ignorant of what quantity and manner of
dosage constitutes a peril for the patient, is it not reasonable to
suppose that similar ignorance exists in his mind with regard to his own
relations with the drug habit? As a matter of fact, I know this to be the
case; many physicians have come to me for help, and ninety-nine per cent.
of them explained to me that their use of drugs was the direct outgrowth
of their ignorance. If the man who practises medicine is unaware of what
will bring about the habit, what can be expected of the medically
uneducated citizen who is threatened by those in whom he has most
confidence--his doctors?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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