The narcotic drug problem / by Ernest S. Bishop.

  • Bishop, Ernest S. (Ernest Simons), 1876-1927.
Date:
[1920], ©1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The narcotic drug problem / by Ernest S. Bishop. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    can better expend its forces than to this end of education as to addiction-disease and humane help to its sufferer. In the past the problem of control of addiction has been “ What shall be done with or what shall be done to the narcotic addict to make him stop using drugs ? ” It is now gradually coming to be realized that the true prob¬ lem is “ What can be done for the narcotic addict to relieve him of the physical necessity of using drugs ? ” and “ What can be done to so educate the public as to the facts of addiction, so that this disease will claim as few victims as possible ? ” In this change of attitude lies the hope for the future. Gome of the narcotic addicts will have to be done with or done to. They are the inherently irresponsible, vicious or defective. They demand care and restraint irrespec¬ tive of their addiction. The mass of addicts, however, need something done for them. They are clinical prob¬ lems of internal medicine, victims of a definite disease, characteristic in its symptomatology, reactions and phe¬ nomena, a disease which will before long come to be known as clinically and therapeutically controllable and arrest¬ able.