BJ Rhodes was a slimy Bay Area narcotics dealer. Im not going to sugar coat this. If you needed opiates or cocaine, he was man to see.. He started business in San Jose in the 1860s or 70s. The first store was called the Gates & Rhodes Apothecary and was followed by the Rhodes & Lewis Drug Store. Eventually Rhodes ran the business himself, and later moved to San Francisco. That was when the trouble started. In 1889, Rhodes was arrested and charged with a felony in the case of a woman who died from an overdose of morphine. He was accused of having sold the morphine without properly labeling it, and being in violation of a statute dealing with the sale of the drug. Although the charges were dismissed, with the court finding that Rhodes had complied with the law, the San Francisco Daily Report made him a poster child in a crusade against druggists who sold morphine and cocaine. In a different case, the paper reported that a woman who committed suicide by swallowing morphine had a mislabeled vial in her possession that bore the name B.J. Rhodes, Druggist, Pacific and Kearny Streets. Physicians at the hospital where the woman was taken stated that the vial indeed contained morphine. The paper covered other incidents alleging that Rhodes surreptitiously sold morphine and cocaine in violation of ethical standards and, in some cases, in violation of the law. The paper said “his place is open day and night, and was, before the passing of the cocaine ordinance, restored to by a large portion of the Barbary Coast fiends”
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 23:10:11 +0000
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