“The drug taker invariably introduces others to his drug, sometimes openly, oftener secretly, through perverted sympathy for another’s suffering. “And if the drug-taking doctor should be barred from practice, so, also, should the drug-taking nurse and the drug-taking veterinarian. “Now how are these things to be accomplished? The State Commissioner of Health is to prepare and furnish to all local Health Boards or officers official prescription blanks, serially numbered and bearing the State seal, making their imitation forgery. “These are to be furnished to physicians on demand, and no drugs of this class are to be dispensed, save on their presentation properly filled out and signed; no prescription shall be refilled; all filled prescriptions shall be filed and open to periodical health board inspection, bearing not only dates and names of the physicians, but the names of patients for whom the drug is ordered, and no such prescription shall be filled more than ten days after issuance. “To the purchaser, for his protection, while he has the drug in his possession, druggists must issue a certificate, giving their names and addresses and those of the prescribing physician. “These are the principal restrictions surrounding the prescription blank, though there are others. And violations of these regulations are to be regarded as misdemeanors. “In this proposed law, also, is incorporated a provision similar to that of the existing law restricting the sale of hypodermic syringes to physicians’ prescriptions. “This roughly indicates the proposed provisions covering the sale of habit-forming drugs. They are followed by one which may seem almost fantastic to the person unacquainted with the terrible psychology of drug addictions. “I shall preface any explanation of it with the announcement that the drug habit is not a mental state, but a physical condition. My knowledge of it, gained from observation of many hundreds of its victims, will forever prevent me from proposing or pushing any further restrictions of the traffic, until some provision is made for the relief of those already enslaved. “To deprive a drug addict of his drug without giving him definite medical help must inevitably subject him to such suffering, such incredible and indescribable torment, as cannot otherwise be brought upon mankind. It may mean death; it is very likely to mean insanity. The drug addict will steal to get his drug; indeed, he may do murder in order to obtain it. “Therefore this bill provides for the treatment and relief of those who, rendered unable to procure their drug by the provisions of the legislation, might otherwise be made the victims of a social progression.