CHAPTER SIX
THE DOPE HABIT
The most demoralizing, the most degrading
of all prison features, is the "dope" habit, which causes
endless grief and trouble, not only to the users themselves, but
to the prison managers as well. It appears that the use of "dope" originated
in England in the seventeenth century when times were hard and wages
so low that the people could not afford to indulge in ale or whiskey,
but .had to find something cheaper, thus started the use of "dope." It
was thought with wages rising that this practise (sic) would cease
but it did not, on the contrary
"Those eat now, who never ate before,
And those who always ate,
now eat the more"
and from England the
habit spread all over the world, and once a slave of this deadly drug it is
almost impossible to dispense with it. To get it, a user will lie, steal, even
commit murder, and under the influence
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of it he will commit any crime on the calendar. Many
prisoners are users of "dope" when they come to the prison,
and try to smuggle a supply in with them in various ways, mostly
in their shoes. I have seen the heels of a pair of shoes hollowed
out and sufficient "dope" inserted to last a man for
several years. Of course this is promptly destroyed. Some of the
prisoners who never used it on the outside become users of it in
prison. Perhaps they are put in the cell with one of these "dope" fiends
who invites them to try it. They do, and like it. Soon they take
another jolt and before they know it, they become "dope" fiends
themselves.
There is, however, some excuse for prisoners using this poison.
Some of them, having been behind the bars for many years, completely
shut off from all stimulants, after years of hard work, and all
the time doing over and over again the same monotonous prison routine,
find themselves some day
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