4/A
41
In the districts Rs.90 per ounce at the end of the year. retail prices for illicit cocaine rose to as much as Rs.176 per ounce, such prices proved beyond the means of consumers suffering from restricted incomes and the consumption of cocaine everywhere declined or even ceased in places, owing
Illicit to prohibitive prices and failure of supplies. traders tried to introduce Japanese cocaine, but it did not prove popular and the extensive adulteration of the remaining stocks of German cocaine with antifebrin and other powders, by dealers anxious to keep up trade in the absence of new supplies, has had the effect of discrediting. the trade more than the most eloquent disquisitions on the subject. The following are extracts from district reports:-
Rangoon.- Smugglers who held the stocks when war broke out have had to pay highly for them and consequently demand higher prices and these inflated prices cannot be paid by the majority of consumers. Although the dens are raided they still flourish. The sellers are generally human wrecks who are kept alive by the Jail authorities, for it is certain that were they not arrested and imprisoned frequently they would die. A brief holiday for three months in jail makes them fit for a month or two debauch in the dens. Owners of dens rarely enter the dens themselves and it is difficult to lay hands on them. rents of the rooms are paid daily to a durwan who goes round
The durwan and the houseowner collecting from room to room.
The
both know for what purpose the room is taken and it is considered that legislation might well bring the houseowner and his agent, the durwan, on to a level with gambling-den
owners.
Insein:- The cocaine habit has had a big check this year owing to the war. The price of the drug has gone up and it has disappeared from several places where it was previously regularly sold. Hanthawaddy. As a direct result of the war smuggling decreased immensely during the year under report
Fegu. Arrivals of cocaine are few and far between and the
I
retail