Restriction
14
Thus to produce the same narcotic effect 1 grain of injected morphia at a cost of 7 cents = 2334 grs. of smoked opium costing $1.32! The profit to the sellers of these pills is also enormous for they are sold at four times the cost price - 75% profit. There is little occasion for surprise that vendors and purchasers are alike eager to obtain them!
There is, I rejoice to say, some indication that the Chinese Government are waking up to the danger. "The Governor of Kiangsu submitted a Memorial to the Throne pointing out that there was some chance of curing opium smoking, but none of curing the morphia habit, since morphia is obtainable at a fraction of the cost. This led to the Edict of July 16th (Times August 22, 08) in which it is decreed that any Chinese subject selling morphia (or making instruments for its use) without a Custom's permit shall be banished to a pestilential frontier of the Empire". But the facts I have already quoted, and the verdict of those who are in the best position to form an opinion, show that the steps taken have so far been ineffective, and that smokers are becoming eaters or morphia injectors.
$1
While evils such as these are imminent in China, which contains so large and intelligent a proportion of the human race, it is time that the conscience of the Western Nations was touched, and that their efforts should be directed towards the real issues, which concern alike their honour and China's welfare, and I earnestly wish that those who so disinterestedly devote themselves to the eradication of opium smoking would turn their attention to this terrible evil and be content with Regulation and Control of Smoking.
*
In Hongkong, a strict control is maintained over the sale of morphine and of Morphine Opium compounds. The quantity imported for local consumption for 1906 and in Hongkong 1907 averaged 5,000 lbs. of the latter. In order to enhance the price, every person licensed to sell has to pay Royalties to the Opium Farmer, so that all the machinery at his disposal for detecting illicit import and sale is brought into play. Licenses are only granted to qualified Chemists of repute and to such Chinese Druggists as had vested interests in the trade before the introduction of the Legislation. If the business changes hands, the licenses are not renewed. Licensees are required to keep books recording all sales and to issue certificates to all purchasers. Several of these licenses to Chinese vendors have lately been cancelled for breach of the regulations, and it is proposed not to renew the remainder after one year's notice." At present, exemption is only granted to certain well-known medicines prepared in Europe or America (specified in a schedule) and to all prescriptions made up on the order of a qualified medical practitioner. Representations have been made by the Chamber of Commerce and by one of the large European druggists complaining of the restriction on trade, and claiming exemption on all preparations in which opium or morphia is not the sole ingredient, but this would defeat the object in view, viz., to check the sale of the so-called "anti-opium" pills containing morphine, etc. To limit the quantity of opium or morphia contained in a pill would obviously be futile, for several could be taken to produce the result desired. If it should be possible, I should wish to prohibit the sale of all pills, powders, or draughts (except on the prescription of a qualified medical officer) which contained opium or morphia, unless in combination with some other drug in such proportion that it would be disagreeably operative - say an aperient or an emetic - if the pills were consumed for non-medicinal purposes. The transmission by post of opium, morphine, or cocaine is prohibited, and it is also proposed to abolish the bonded warehouse for compounds of opium and morphine hitherto maintained by the Farmer and to retain a Government warehouse only. The question is at the present moment under the consideration of the Government.
The drastic Ordinance of September 1893 "for the suppression of the pernicious practice of injecting preparations of morphine by unqualified persons", together with the provisions of the "Prepared Opium Ordinance" which imposed Royalty of $30 per tael for morphia (300% ad valorem) and $5 for opium, † have been so effective in restricting the illicit use of these drugs, that whereas in the Straits Opium Report Hon. Dr. Galloway stated that 39 out of a group of 595 prisoners taken at random (viz., 6.4%) bore injection scars, only one person so scarred was on a recent examination found in the whole of the inmates of both hospitals and gaols of this Colony.
* The Straits Commission endorse these views: Morphia they say has an infinitely greater compelling power over the subject, and an infinitely greater deleterious result (Report § 114). It is easier to smuggle, and the prohibition, or the too great enhancement of price of opium, would increase morphia consumption (Report § 256).
† Ordinance 15 of 1906 and subsequent Amending Ordinances. Report Vol. 1, p. 10.
15
In June 1908, a Pharmacy Ordinance was enacted under which morphine and cocaine and their preparations were scheduled as Poisons with further restrictions as to their wholesale and retail use. In view of the experience of India, cocaine (though not at present abused here) was made the subject of elaborate regulations of a similar nature to those already in force regarding morphine and opium compounds, in order to control the wholesale trade and prevent illicit import to China.
339
A decoction of the leaves of the Combretum Sundaicum has been stated to be a cure for the opium habit. The Director, Botanical Department, Singapore, informs me that it is a complete fraud which only lasted three months, during which time the promoters made great gains. The only man he knew who tried it became a wreck - took to opium again and died. This was confirmed by the results obtained by the Viceroy of Szechuan, who imported a great quantity at the instance of Mr. Alexander.*
The education of public opinion, on which both the Straits Commission and M. Hardouin lay stress, is the only real method of curing the habit, the more so that it is usually the rich who smoke to excess. This view is rightly emphasised in the original decree, and there seems little doubt that throughout the Chinese Empire, among the better classes, there has been a very real progress in this direction. Smoking is now prohibited in the Army, Navy, and Civil Services, and in schools and colleges. The evils of the opium habit should be inculcated in every school, not only in China, but in the Foreign Concessions and British Colonies. But above all, stress should be laid on the evils of eating opium and of eating or injecting morphia, and also on the misuse of alcohol.
It may be of use to restate the facts as to the prevalence of opium smoking. Sir John Jordan gave it as his opinion that only 8,000,000 (say 2%) of the population of China were addicted to the habit.** Sir Robert Hart, I believe, estimated it (in 1881) at a much lower figure. Dr. Ayres states that the Chinese Customs returns estimate the number of smokers to population in China at 2% (1893) - probably referring to Sir Robert Hart's estimate. Mr. Clementi, in a recent elaborate and very careful calculation, puts it at considerably less than 2% for the whole of China, but 4.4% in the province of Szechuan, where purely native opium is smoked, while in Hongkong, where the adult male population (who alone smoke) is three times that of the adult females (while the latter predominate in China), the percentage of smokers is 6.25.
These figures are challenged by a paper named Chinese Opinion, which argues that it is only the adult male population which should be reckoned, and works out a percentage of 8.31. Mr. Clementi's figures for adult males are, however, more liberal, being 12.94 for Hongkong only. As the population of China is largely rural, the lower estimate is probably more correct, and allowing for a proportion who smoke less than the amount calculated (though this again is probably more than balanced by the excessive smokers), it will probably be approximately correct to say that not more than 1.5% of the total population smoke opium, and not more than ten per cent of the adult males are smokers, - a large proportion of whom are only casually addicted.
It has been stated that great difficulty is experienced in giving up the habit, but in the Hongkong gaol, the drug is entirely prohibited, with no ill results beyond a little temporary diarrhoea.
I have attempted in the foregoing paragraphs to show that those who may claim to be not less interested in the question of the Native Races, and in the welfare of the intelligent, industrious, and most interesting population of China...
See also Straits Opium Report §297. I have endeavoured to ascertain whether there is any substance which could be mixed with opium (whether sold medicinally or for smoking) which would render it impossible to use it for self-indulgence in eating, by producing nausea or other deterrent effects. I have not, however, so far been able to discover any such method of denaturing the drug. The Government of Java, which has an Opium Monopoly, mixes some substance with the opium prepared for smoking, by which its own brand can be immediately detected, though the flavour is not spoilt; they decline, however, to disclose the nature of the ingredient. Lithium carbonate (5 grs. to 100 lbs. of opium) will, however, serve the purpose required. It is entirely harmless and does not impair the value for smoking.
† Art. IV of Decree. Sir J. Jordan 26.11.06. China No. 1 (1908).
** Sir Jordan 30.9.06 China No. 1 (1908). Indian Opium Commission, Vol. V, p. 193.
See also Dr. Ayres' report. Indian Commission Vol. V, p. 193.
Straits Commission §267.