G.F. 323
0003230
CONFIDENTIAL # #
5
機密
APPENDIX 'B'
About the worst that can be said for opium smoking medically is that it induces lethargy and laziness, may cause constipation, and tends to deprive a person of that initiative and alertness which are so essential to earn a decent living in a dynamic community like Hong Kong. But the vice is bad in another respect; on account of its creating a high degree of dependence through addiction and habituation, there is a distinct likelihood of abusers spending less money on food in order to have cash available to buy the quantity of opium required to satisfy their craving. This results over a period in the body becoming undernourished and thus more susceptible to diseases of one sort or another. For a married addict this consequence can be visited upon his
family.
7.
However, because opium is the base substance required for the production of morphine and heroin, it cannot be treated in isolation as a more or less harmless euphoric justifying legalisation. Just as the announcement in January 1969 of Iran's decision to rescind the ban on poppy growing for the production of opium, which it had imposed in 1955, came as a sharp disappointment to the International Narcotics Control Board and the world community in general, so would any decision by the Hong Kong Government to legalise opium sale and consumption be regarded at the present time. Indeed, such a move today would cause an outcry and a vociferous storm of protests from many quarters not least from the United States of America. In the present climate of world opinion it is unlikely that the British Government could, or would even want to hold to such a course of action. To legalise opium would create entirely the wrong atmosphere in which to pursue Government's policy of eradicating drug abuse from the community and indeed would render such a policy nugatory largely destroying in the process the credibility of Government's declared purpose. And then there is the morphine and heroin aspect mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.
CONFIDENTIAL
機密