OCR Text |
Show wv 1 AWFUL TRAFFIC 1 IN NARCOTICS I More destructive to morals and I health than the liquor traffic is the I traffic in narcotics which is involving !' all parts of the country. I Jn an interview in Salt Lake, the I head of the Denver division of the I federal anti-narcotic bureau, declared I more than $480,000 was the value of H the transactions in illicit peddling of j narcotics in Salt Lake last year I Raids have been made and are be- I ing made, to try to break up the traf- fie, but the evil continues. I "Salt Lake City is the center of the - td traffic," says Mr. Williamson, "in the M tnlrrmountaln we6t, From the north, m south and west narcotics flow into and 1 out of Salt Lake in a manner startling 5 to the average citizen. Old Mexjco m especially Is a source from which Hi much of Salt Lake's illicit morphine m, and cocaine is imported. Morphine S is used to a greater extent than is 3 cocaine. Heroin is only found in rare instances. Morphine Js sold in Salt It Lake In blndles containing not less than one grain. The retail purchase I m price is $1 agrain. According to the head of the raiding party, one grain , Wi of the drug will make a 'hop-head nor mal' for about three hours. A man II ,may buy about six grains lor J3.75. The cost wholesale Is $25 for 480 grains. "Since the advent ol prohibition it has been found that the price of narcotics nar-cotics has Jumped enormously. In pre Volstead days, sixty grains could be (purchased for 75 cents That amount jai present costs the addict from $611 I to $75. It has been determined by in-IvsstlgStion in-IvsstlgStion that addicts are not using ! so great a quantity of tho drugs because be-cause they ar- unable to raise enough ! money 10 purchase the desired quantity. quan-tity. People of no apparent source of 'income are the greatest users of drugs. They wander around in rags for the 'sake of a bit of tho substance which j will raise them for a few hours from their depression." What does all the demoralisation 'mean'' Have the people weakened in1 moral structure; have the authorities' , lost their power, or are ihe churches' 'and the homes failing to exert the steadying influence as of old0 |