Masons Given the Real Dope
on “Goof Balls” and “Chipping”

There is no problem of narcotics in Westchester County because of the close cooperation between the Sheriff’s office and the 30 police departments of the County, Deputy Sheriff Samuel MacMahan told an audience of more than 50 at a dinner meeting last week of the Masonic Club of Larchmont, at the Seven Pines Restaurant.

Narcotics will never get a foothold in the County because of this cooperation, he added.

As further proof, he quoted a recent statement made by Children’s Court Judge George W. Smith saying he has yet to have a youthful offender before him whose appearance was due to narcotics.

Mr. MacMahan, who lives in Peekskill and works out of Sheriff John E. Hoy’s office in White Plains, has specialized in narcotics since joining the Sheriff’s force and appeared by special arrangement with Sheriff Hoy.

The law enforcement agencies in the County, Mr. MacMahan stated, are most concerned with marijuana, which can be grown anywhere, because it is usually the opening wedge aides to dope addiction, particularly heroin. In the spread of the use of marijuana, he said, the “pusher,” who is not a dope addict himself “knowing only too well how it ravages the body,” is the most important man. His is the job of finding weak personalities in an area, and persuading them not only to smoke “reefers” but to persuade others to do so, he said. The bait he holds out is income on a high plane, which seems particularly appealing to high school youths, he said, and the ability to “go places and do things on a grand scale.”

Marijuana is not habit-forming, Mr. McMahan continued, but gives the smoker a thrill, excites his passions, and often sets up a desire to kill. There are two types of refers, he said, displaying a “stick” and a “bomber.”

Marijuana is bitter in taste, he continued, and is usually taken alternating with a glass of dry Sherry. The desire for it soon leaves the individual, and the “pusher” then introduces heroin, the use of which is called “joy popping” or “chipping,” he stated. He persuades his weak character not only to use it to himself, but to push the sale of it on others, thus making more money, he said. The result is an addict in a week’s time, he added.

Heroin can be taken orally, through the nose, or by a hypodermic syringe, Mr. MacMahan pointed out, but the latter is preferred not only because results are quicker but because irritations are set up in the first two ways.

Two purchases are necessary, Mr. McMahon continued, before an arrest can be made, since the seller “could have made a mistake the first time.” Elaborate precautions are taken to see to it that the dope falls into the right hands, he said, payment in advance being required and direction then given as to where it is concealed. The pattern of the “horse booky” can be easily determined by following him a few days, but the dope peddler uses no set pattern and changes constantly.

He stated that opium is the base for all drugs used by addicts, except cocaine which is derived from the cocoa plant. He described one instance where an enforcement officer made to purchases as required by law, totaling three-quarters of an ounce, for $10,000.00, which, he declared, would net the buyer in the dope addict market from $60,000 to $70,000.

“The use of drugs is a weakness and an illness, not so much a crime,” Mr. MacMahan said, “and efforts are made to handle it that way.”