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Show BOYS WITH COCAINE HABIT TWO YOUNG MEN OF GOOD FAMILIES FAM-ILIES JAILED. Chief of Police Complains That Doctors Doc-tors and Druggist Are Parties to This Degradation. For some time past Chief of Police Thomas Browning has had occasion to complain of the promlscum and unwarranted manner of Issuing prescriptions pre-scriptions for cocaine nnJ other similar sim-ilar drugs by physicians, and the careless care-less manner on the part of som of the rtiugglsts In filling them. The chief siPtos that patience has almost ceased to be a virtue with him in this matter. He eays he has contln-uully contln-uully Importuned certain doctors and druggists of the city to abstain from making It possible for people to get cocaine who are so addicted to the habit that they are In abject slaery to It. But his Importunlngs have been disregarded very largely and. as a re-hull, re-hull, the cocaine habit has grown in tho city to an alarming extent, a number num-ber of the young men of the city having j been dragged to prison cells because of 1L ! Chief Browning states further that ) vigorous prosecution against some of j the physicians will be Instituted f the practice Is not soon discontinued. Not only is it wrong and unprofessional unprofes-sional for the physicians to write pre-t-crlutlons for cocaine, except for medicinal medi-cinal purposes, but it places In the hands of the unfortunate cocaine fiends an Instrument that they can duplicate, In the forgery of the doctor's doc-tor's iiam?, and get cocaine for an Indefinite In-definite time without hindrance. The wrong that the druggist commits In the matter Is the lill'ng of prescriptions prescrip-tions that they are not certain are authentic, au-thentic, or that they come from physicians physi-cians tor legitimate purposes. A case In polrt was brought to the attention of the "police" department lest evening, the result being that two young men are In Jail, one of them Lcrt Cody, having been sentenced to ten days days' service In tho city Jail this morning ou the charge of vagrancy. vagran-cy. The other, Walter Farr, being held pending Investigation regarding tho gravity of his olfenso. The yonug men are Inveterate users use-rs of cocaine and they have been get- I ting tho drug from some of the drug gi viijt nu in L-nui ipiiuus alleged al-leged to have been written by physicians. physi-cians. It Is quite evident, however, that all but one of the prescriptions found in the possession of the men are forgeries. In fact. Farr has made a written statement to tho Chief of Pollco that he forged all except one, which ho claims was written by tho physician whose name is attached to all of them. He said that he got one I prescription for cocaine from a physician phy-sician and afterwards, whenever himself him-self or friends wanted more, duplicated duplicat-ed the formula and forged the doctor's name. He states that druggists have rot hesitated to fill the prescriptions when presented. Three of the prescriptions are written writ-ten on pieces of white cardboard and the others are written on slips of paper pap-er torn from blank note books. Not one of the prescriptions is written on the printed form of prescription blanks I U6ed by doctors, and the officers are ot a loss to know why druggists rilled such orders, or failed to see that they wore not authentic. Chief Browning states that he is g'-lng to stop tho practice if it becomes be-comes necessary to prosecute doctors and druggists, as well as the poor fellows who are slaves to the habit. Farr's caso Is under consideration and. tho otficers state. It is more than likely that ho will be charged with forgery. He and the Cody boy are fiom good families, but tho young men have fallen from grace througn this vicious drug habit. - |