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habit, and the high Provincial Authorities should
appoint efficient and experienced medical officers
to make a careful study of these, with the view to
the selection of a number of prescriptions (suitable
to the natural conditions of each particular locali-
ty) and the manufacture therefrom of pills or medi-
cines provided that such pills or medicines shall
not contain opium-ash or morphia.
Such remedial medicines should then be bought
by the local authorities, who will distribute them
among the local charitable institutions or medicine
shops for sale at the original price, while poor
persons will be allowed to obtain them free of charge.
The gentry and tradesmen will also be allowed
to manufacture such remedies according to prescrip-
tion for free distribution with a view to spreading
this benefit more widely: and any person who can
be shown to have promoted such distribution by his
personal exertions or exhortation and to have suc-
ceeded in breaking others of the opium habit thereby,
shall be awarded honorary recognition by the local
authorities.
Article VII. To allow the establishment of
Anti-opium Societies, in order to promote this good
movement.
There have recently been several instances of
public-spirited individuals who have combined with
others of their own class in founding Anti-opium So-
cieties, and in mutually assisting in exhorting the
abandonment of the habit. Such enterprises deserve
the highest praise; and the High Provincial Authori-
ties should direct the local officials to take the
lead among the respectable men of standing in each
place, and develop the establishment of such societies;
so that with each addition to the number there will
be an additional centre of activity. But such socie-
ties must only be allowed to concern themselves with
the single question of giving up opium, and must not
discuss current politics or questions of local govern-
ment, or other subjects not related to the abandonment
of the opium habit.
Article
authorities
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