C.O.
2956
[Received 19 Feb 94]
Royal Opium Commission -
Answer to questions regarding Consumption and opium in the Colony and Dependencies of Hong Kong
(1) Opium is commonly consumed by Chinese in Hong Kong.
(2) Perhaps a fifth part of the male adults are consumers of Opium. I understand that young children in brothels smoke opium; and I have heard of children getting the appetite or craving for it; but, as a rule, children are not provided with opium or allowed to smoke it; and the same might be said of women.
(3) The effects of opium which I have observed are:
(a) moral - loss of power of will and courage, honesty, and honour;
(b) physical - emaciation, want of appetite and sluggishness;
(c) social - poverty, self-concentration and general neglect.