[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government. ]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
2714/15/10]
No. 1.
[July 25, 1
SECTION 8
46055
A
(No. 307.) My Lord,
Sir C. Eliot to Barl Curzon.-(Received July 25,
14 SEP 211 Tokyo, June 20, 1921. ON receipt of your Lordship's despatch No. 169 of the 10th March, 1921, enclosing a copy of a letter to the Home Office, I caused further investigations to be made into the control of the manufacture, sale and use of morphine in Japan, and I now have the honour to transmit herewith a memorandum on the subject prepared by the Japanese Counsellor of this Embassy,
It would appear from this memorandum that the actual use of these drugs is probably limited to legitimate purposes so far as the general public in Japan is- concerned; but, with regard to manufacture and sale, no additional light is thrown on the regulations contained in my despatch No. 622 of the 29th December, 1920.
At the same time the notification issued by the Ministry of the Interior to local authorities in December last, a translation of which I have the honour to enclose, suggests that the Japanese Government intend to comply with the spirit of the Opium Convention.
I have, &c.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
C. ELIOT.
Memorandum on Limitations to the Manufacture, Sale and Use of Morphine and
Cocaine.
IN his letter of the 23rd February, 1921, to the Under-Secretary of the Home Office, Mr. Wellesley draws attention to the fact that the regulations issued by the Japanese Ministry of the Interior under Departmental Ordinance No. 61 of the 12th December, 1920, do not show clearly that the manufacture, sale and use in Japan of morphine, cocaine and their kindred salts are now confined to medical and legitimate purposes, as required by article 9 of the Opium Convention of 1912.
According to the information received from the Commercial Department of the Japanese Foreign Office, the following are the regulations now in force dealing with these drugs:-
1. Regulations for the sale and treatment of medicines, in particular articles Nos. 14. 15 (2), 17, 18, 22, 25, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 94, 35, 37 (2) (3)(4)(5), 38, 38 (3), and the penal articles (pp. 159 et seq. of the Sanitary Laws of Japan) enclosed in Sir Charles Eliot's despatch No. 588 of the 19th November, 1920;
2. Ordinance No. 4 of 1889 (Ministry of the Interior) providing for the regular inspection of the drug business as well as of the use, storage and manufacture of drugs throughout Japan;
3. Ordinance No 7 of 1907 enumerating the "specially designated" medicines referred to in the regulations for the sale and treatment of medicines (pp. 173 et seq. of the Sanitary Laws of Japan);
4. Orders based on the regulations for the sale and treatment of medicines (pp. 176 et seq. of the Sanitary Laws of Japan);
5. Ordinance No. 2 of March 1912 giving a list of poisonous and powerful medicines. Among the poisonous medicines are included "morphine and its compounds and drugs containing it, except, however, diacetyl-morphine salts and drugs containing them, and morphine tablets and tincture compounded of chloroform and morphine.' Among the powerful medicines are included cocaine and its compounds and drugs containing it, and codeine and its compounds and drugs containing it."
6. Regulations for the control of the import, export, manufacture and sale or purchase of morphiue, cocaine and their kindred salts in Japan (enclosed in Sir Charles Eliot's despatch No. 622 of the 29th December, 1920). (Note.--Their general purport seems to correspond with that of Part III of the Dangerous Drugs Act.)
There does not exist in these regulations any stipulation with regard to morphine and cocaine comparing in clearness with article 3 of the Opium Law (pp. 178 et seq. of
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