2.
Medical, duly qualified practitioner, and presumably under clause 5 such person may, without offence, be in possession of morphine." Surely to be effective, these clauses should have provided that the Doctor should be practising in Hong Kong and that "the operators should be named in the prescription."
Under clause 5, any person having in their possession any preparation of morphine unless prescribed may (if the Attorney General grants his fiat under clause 6) be prosecuted and sentenced to a fine or imprisonment.
Under Clause 4, it is an offence to supply morphine or hypodermic syringes. But so carelessly is the Bill drawn that it is not made an offence to possess the latter.
The object of clause 5 is to catch people who are believed to be carrying on the trade of injection, though no evidence of infection is forthcoming to satisfy a Court. A person might be punished for having a spoonful of Chlorodyne, possibly for legitimate purposes.