Page "Harrison Narcotics Tax Act" Paragraph 7

Theodore Roosevelt appointed Dr. Hamilton Wright as the first Opium Commissioner of the United States in 1908.

In 1909, Wright attended the International Opium Commission in Shanghai as the American delegates.

He was accompanied by Charles Henry Brent, the Episcopal Bishop.

On March 12, 1911, Dr. Wright was quoted in as follows in an article in the New York Times: " Of all the nations of the world, the United States consumes most habit-forming drugs per capita.

Opium, the most pernicious drug known to humanity, is surrounded, in this country, with far fewer safeguards than any other nation in Europe fences it with.

" Wright further stated that " cocaine is often the direct incentive to the crime of rape by the Negroes of the South and other sections of the country ," even though there was no evidence to support this claim.

Wright also stated that " one of the most unfortunate phases of smoking opium in this country is the large number of women who have become involved and were living as common-law wives or cohabitating with Chinese in the Chinatowns of our various cities ".