CONFIDENTIAL.
To
10
4
REC?
16 JUN 11
R&S 332
1392
1911.
No. 26 of 1911.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY.
EXCISE.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE VISCOUNT MORLEY OF BLACKBURN, Q.M.,
His Majesty's Secretary of State for India.
Simla, the 11th May 1911.
MY LORD,
We have the honour to invite your attention to the enclosed extracts of paragraph 43 of the Report on the Administration of the Excise Department in Burma for the year 1909-10 and of paragraphs 6 and 5, respectively, of the reviews thereof by the Financial Commissioner and the Lieutenant-Governor, regarding the spread of the cocaine habit in that province.
2. It will be observed that this pernicious habit is growing rapidly in Burma and that cocaine is said to be taking the place of opium in certain areas. The fact is viewed wth considerable apprehension by the local authorities; but they despair of arresting the progress of the habit unless action is taken to stop the supply of cocaine at the sources from which it is imported into this country. As the Financial Commissioner points out, the difficulties in the detection of the smuggling of the drug are even greater than in the case of opium, inasmuch as in proportion of value to bulk and in portability it is superior to opium, while it bas no strong smell which needs to be disguised.
3. Since the year 1905 special restrictions have been imposed upon the import, possession and sale of cocaine and its congeners in Burma. Import and sale of the drugs have been wholly prohibited except under a license from the local authorities, while their possession is permitted only in restricted quantities by (a) licensed vendors, (b) qualified medical practitioners in the exercise of their profession, and (c) private persons on the prescription of such practition- ers. The import of the drugs through the post, which affords the readiest means of smuggling, has also been prohibited, and special powers have been conferred upon the postal authorities at the ports of entry (viz., Rangoon and Akyab) to search all postal articles in course of transmission which may be suspected to contain illicit drugs. In spite of all these precautions a very large illicit
1907-08 1808-09 1909-10
་-་
THE
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***
Grains. $90,885 989,636 939,685
trade in cocaine is carried on, as will be seen from the figures of seizures of the drug in Burma during the years 1907-08 to 1909-10 quoted in the margin. This traffic the existing preventive establishments are unable to put a stop to.
id