Odd, Old News: ‘Dope Evil Plainly Growing,’ Warns Early Eureka Newspaper

Nuggets of old news are served up by David Heller, one of our local historians.

100 years ago, narcotic drug use was a serious and growing problem in Humboldt County and across the country. We have previously looked at opiate addiction in the 1890’s, as well as the prohibition era resulting from passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 that provided enforcement for the Eighteenth Amendment in an attempt curb the nation’s appetite for alcohol. T

here was no similar law for narcotics, until the Poison Act of 1920 amended laws regulating the sale of poisons, including such drugs as morphine, heroin, opium, and cocaine that were commonly used by addicts. It also limited the amount of these drugs that could be prescribed by physicians, which led to a few local doctors being arrested.

Profits in narcotics were said to be even greater than those of the alcohol bootlegger. In 1924, 1 out of every 11 prisoners at the Sing Sing prison were incarcerated because of drug addiction. Their medical officer reported “It is estimated that more than nine tenths of all murders, hold ups and daring robberies are now committed by drug addicts. Prohibition, important as it is, after all, is a trivial matter compared with the drug traffic”(Humboldt Times, 4/19/1924).

This week, Odd Old News takes a look at the case of one young woman with an addiction to heroin, and Eureka area narcotic use in the early 1920’s.
Narcotic use in New York City and the United States

HOW THE DOPE EVIL GROWS IN AMERICA PLAINLY TOLD
Humboldt Times, January 22, 1922
By Edward Thierry
NEW YORK, Jan. 21.—What is the worst evil in America? What is the chief breeder of crime, the greatest menace to public health and mentality. Narcotic drugs! That is the answer of police officials, the medical profession and government experts. The use of illicit drugs has increased tremendously in this country in the last few years. Statistics show America uses 16 times more opium and its derivatives- heroin and morphine—than any other Country. The same is true of cocaine, obtained from the South American cocoa plant. We use as much opium as China did 15 years ago. The United States has supplanted China as the world’s greatest opium consumer. Hundreds, of millions of dollars are spent annually lot these habit-forming drugs—almost a billion dollars if statistical estimates are correct.

According to Dr. Wallace, the county Health Officer, an estimated 200-300 Eureka citizens were heroin addicts. Dr. Wallace was a prominent and well regarded physician who had nearly a five decade career in medicine. After serving as a Doctor for 37 months in the Army in WWI, he came home and became County Health Officer, Vice President of the Medical Society, and county attending physician for many medical cases. At this time the Mendocino State Hospital in Talmadge was a destination for “inmates charged with crimes but found not guilty by reason of insanity”, and drug addicts, as was the case of the young woman below and others from Humboldt County.

HEROIN USE
Humboldt Times
March 3, 1922

Vendors of Drugs Ply Trade Here Dr. Carl Wallace Tells Of Local Conditions When Girl-Victim of Habit Is Sent to Asylum

Eureka drug addicts numbering between two and three hundred, are not only receiving their supplies of narcotics through the mail from a statewide dope ring in San Francisco but in addition are securing the various brands of dope from local agents of the peddlers, according to a statement made by Dr. Carl T. Wallace yesterday morning following the commitment of Mrs. Myrtle Fay Hatton, 19 year old matron to the Ukiah state asylum as a victim of the heroin habit. That thousands of dollars pass monthly from the hands of these addicts to the drug-ring is the belief of Dr. Wallace following personal observation of the many addicts here and his experience in dealing with cases as county physician.

PEDDLERS WORK HERE

“In the first place it is impossible for dope victims of the number that prevail in Eureka to secure their supplies from physicians and drug stores here, as a close check is kept on all narcotics thus held for use and sale.” said Dr. Wallace. “Consequently peddlers will obtain the drug from illicit sources must be at work among this class. At times the supply of dope appears to fail. Then the offices of local physicians are besieged with applicants for a ‘shot’ to tide them over this period.”

Dr. Wallace appeared as a witness at the hearing of Mrs. Hatton, who was arrested on the complaint of her husband, Charles A. Hatton, after all efforts to break her of the habit failed. The story unfolded by the husband and W. A. Howard, a brother of the girl, was pitiful in the extreme and told of a happy wedded life of but two months wrecked by the bride’s craving for narcotics.

HUSBANDS STORY

“It was not until after we had been married at Fort Bragg, December 20, 1921, that I became aware that Myrtle was addicted to drugs”, the husband told the commission hearing the case. “Then I tried every means possible to break her of the habit, but she was uncontrollable and gradually I could see that the dope was undermining her morally and physically. So after talking with her brother, I decided to bring this charge.”

Questioned by members of the medical commission, Mrs. Hatton, who was first thought to be 22 years of age, admitted that she was but 19 and formed the habit while working as a cabaret performer 11 months ago. She confessed that attempts to kill the craving for dope had failed but pleaded for probation here. The drug was costing her $5 a bundle by mail at the present time she said and while at first a bundle lasted for nearly 10 days it was gradually becoming necessary to replenish her supply within five or six days the habit grew upon her.

PROTECTS PEDDLER

Efforts of the commission to find out from whom she was purchased the dope met with futility and after considering the case, it was decided to commit her to the Ukiah asylum for the period of one year. Ukiah is the girl’s original home, her mother residing there at the present time. The commission consisted of Superior Judge Denver Sevier, Dr. A. M. Smith and Dr. Charles C Falk.

Jurisdictional confusion over whose responsibility it was to apprehend and stop local drug trafficking didn’t help matters, nor did some police attitudes.

DRUG PEDDLERS UNHAMPERED IN EUREKA TRAFFIC
THREE HUNDRED ADDICTS SERVED WITH DRUGS WITHOUT HINDRANCE IS VERDICT
Humboldt Times
January 16, 1927

According to the best local sources of information Eureka is not enjoying immunity from this fast growing national menace of narcotic using. A large number of addicts—by far too large for a city of this size is authoritatively stated to be the menace’s figure here, and something less than nothing is being done to put the brakes on—locally.

One of the best informed peace officers in the county sets the average number of peddlers allowed to ply their trade here without let or hindrance, at 25. He is not a police officer and therefore has no jurisdiction within the city in such cases, but avers readily enough that something—a good deal—could be done to make the peddler’s lot much harder than it is.

District Attorney Hill believes that to a great extent the matter is up to the state board of pharmacy officers, as the suppression of the drug traffic is a separate service.

POLICE CHIEF SARCASTIC

Chief of Police Conant, when asked about the traffic, did not wish to be annoyed. Asked ‘how many addicts he estimated were in Eureka, he said: “I don’t know, I never counted them, did you?” Asked recently direct questions as to what was being done about the apprehension of dope peddlers, Chief Conant replied: “I don’t know any of them. The patrolmen have instructions to bring them in if they find them, and if they don’t do it I can’t help it. I can’t do everything.”

As for any hindrance in the way of the dope peddler would be the line at least the work of the State board of pharmacy would be much harder to detect than is the dope peddler. Possibly once a year a man or two from thin branch of the state service come to Eureka, make a few calls on local officials and take the train for the south again. Never by any chance does an arrest here, let alone adequate prosecution of the worst murderour traffickers who supply Eureka addicts with the deadly drugs follow as the result of anything done by the state board of pharmacy in Eureka.

THE COMMON CURSE

Meantime the drug flows in a stream from San Francisco and the south, Portland, Tacoma and Seattle in the north. “Sometime,” says the peace officer quoted, “the peddler comes by automobile over the state highway, sometimes he comes by train and again by steamer. He may be anything in appearance from a businessman to a deck-hand, but there is nothing to prevent his coming, and less to prevent his disposal of his wares after he gets here.”

Eureka, as any established physician in the city can testify, and some of them will do so readily, is afflicted with the habit to the extent of probably one in 50 of the entire city population, and that curse is growing as rapidly here as elsewhere. Many of the miserable victims of the dread habit are to found in families of the well to do, and in some cases ft daily prominent. Others are habitues of the lower part of the city. Their ranks embrace the restaurant worker, the cabaret girl, the woodsman and the carefully raised children of the more fortunately situated residents of the city. Their bond is the bond of a common affliction —their curse a far reaching one.

THE ADDICTS

There are about 300 drug addicts in the city of Eureka, according to authoritative sources here.

A confirmed user of narcotic drugs consumes about five grains of morphine or heroin a day, or approximately an ounce every three months, at an average cost to the addict of about $lOO in ounce. This means that $80,000 or more is being paid out in Eureka annually by those in the power of narcotics to supply their craving.

When it is considered that a physician with an average practice uses about one drain of morphine a year for medical purposes, while the dope fiend uses that amount in from 10 to 12 days, the enormous consumption of illegally bought drugs in Eureka may be seen.

NUMBER INCREASING

It is said that those in the grip of narcotics in the city are steadily increasing. Persons under the Influence of their daily allotment or drugs are very hard to detect by the casual observer and may go on for years before being known as they do not reveal their habit as do inebriates. They take the drug in seclusion, and its immediate effect is not noticeable. The addict not being readily distinguishable on the streets by the average person, people are apt to scoff at the idea of there being so many confirmed users of narcotics in Eureka but nevertheless they are in the city.

It is hard to estimate the number of narcotic peddlers in the city, but it is said agents operate regular automobile routes between Eureka and San Francisco to secure morphine and heroin for their intended victims. Also the drug has been known to be smuggled into the city onboard ship, train, and through the mails, it is said.

FEARFUL ODDS

When it is considered that enough drugs may be brought into a community In the pockets of two or three persons to supply 200 or 000 addicts for sometime, it can be seen that only by the utmost vigilance on the part of the community and authorities can the practice he stamped out and the miserable peddler’s brought, to justice.

Contrary to the general impression, those addicted to the use of narcotics were not all vagrants, but the drug soon makes tramps out of its victims, said a well known local physician. It has been said that two weeks of continued use of narcotics is enough to break down the morale of even the strongest character, and make a confirmed addict. It is also stated that once the habit is formed it is almost impossible to break it. Occasionally it is overcome temporarily but in almost every instance, sooner or later the afflicted person succumbs to temptation again.

THE PEDDLERS WORK

People in all walks of life are endangered by the vicious peddling of illicit drugs, and once in the grip of the dope vendor, it matters little whether the victim is a vagrant or one best social connections. Young or old, once the habit is formed, the outcome is generally the same, the gradual weakening of the will and the use of more and more of the drug as time goes on, and finally oblivion, so far as the people that formerly knew the addict are concerned. The victim of the narcotic habit, either sinks lower and lower and becomes a shiftless tramp, or ends it all by taking his own life.

How the drug menace may creep into the home in seen by the fact that caught going into the high schools only recently dope peddlers were in the bay cities where they were endeavoring to carry on their practice of distributing narcotics among the high school students. It is mid that 90 per cent of all the narcotic drugs in the world are manufactured in the United States. The drugs are then shipped abroad and smuggled hack Into the United States, where their deadly effect is felt becoming a national peril.