[
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The number of chests manufactured to supply the demands of British India since 1905-06 are shown below :--
Excise Cheste of
Excise Chests of
Year.
123 lbs.
Year.
1293 lbs.
1905-06
5,635
1912-13
9,947
1900-07
6,263
1913-14
8,307
1907-08
11,220
1914-15
8,943
1908-09
5,770
1915-16
8,391
1909-10
7.172
1916-17
8,732
1910-11
8,611
1917-18
8,567
1911--12
9,126
1918-19
8,512
The Indian States of course continue to produce opium for their internal requirements, but the effect of the cessation of export to China can be seen from the following figures, which represent the total area under cultivation, inclusive in the later years of the acreage cultivated on account of the Govern- ment of India :—
Year.
Acres nudes
cultivation in Indinn Stabes.
Year.
Acras under cultivation in Indian States,
1905-06
146,677
1913-14
12.277
1906-07
246,911
1914-15
15,320
1907-08
191,714
1915-16
10,568
1908-09
134,629
1916-17
46,441
1909-10
108,973
1917-18
54,341
1910-11
147,262
1918-19
1911-12
1912-13
71,983 47,143
1919-20
24,871 56,931
CHAPTER III.
THE CONSUMPTION OF OPIUM IN INDIA.
The attitude of the Government of India towards the general question of opium consumption was well expressed by the following passage in a Despatch addressed to the Secretary of State by Lord Hardinge's Government in 1911-1
"The probibition of opium-eating in India we regard as impossible, and any attempt at it as fraught with the most serious consequences to the people and the Government. We take our stand unhesitatingly on the conclusion of the Royal Commission which reported in 1895, viz., that the opium habit as a vice scarcely exists in India, that opium is extensively used for non-medical and quasi-medical purposes, in some cases with benefit, and for the most part without injurious conséquences; that the non-medical uses are so interwoven with the medical
This passage was quoted in the Despatch from the Government of Indin, dated the 24th March 1921, wbleh was published in the supplement to the Gazette of India, dated the 17th September 1921.
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uses that it would not be practicable to draw a distinction between them in the distribution and sale of the drug and that it is not necessary that the growth of the poppy and the manufacture and sale of opium in British India should be pro- hibited except for medical purposes. Whatever may be the case in other countries, centuries of inherited experience have taught the people of India discretion in the use of the drug, and its misuse is a negligible feature in Indian life. Even if it were possible to suppress the cultivation of opium in India, geographical and political limitations would place it beyond our power to prevent illicit import and consumption on a serious scale" and again: "The great majority of Indian opinm-eaters are not slaves to the habit. They take small doses as required and can and do give up the allowance when the need of it is past. Opium is in virtually universal use throughout India as the commonest and most treasured of the household remedies accessible to the people. It is taken to avert or lessen fatigue, as a specific in bowel complaints, as a prophylactic against malaria (for which its relatively high anarcotine coutent makes it specially valuable), to lessen the quantity of sugar in diabetes, and generally to allay pain in sufferers of all ages. The vast bulk of the Indian population, it must be remembered, are strangers to the ministrations of qualified doctors or druggists. They are dependent almost entirely on the herbal simples of the country; distance and the patient acceptance of hardships standing in the way of prompt access to skilled medical relief. In these circumstances the use of opium in small quantities is one of the most important aids in the treatment of children's sufferings. It is also a frequent help to the aged and infirm, and an alleviation in diseases and accidents which are accepted as incurable. To prevent the sale of opiums except under regular medical prescription would be a mockery; to many millions it would be sheer inhumanity."
Ever since the logic of events compelled the Government of India over a hundred years ago to recognise that opium eating could not be entirely suppressed, and that it was a necessary element in the lives of the population, they have steadily pursued a policy of restricting the habit within the narrowest possible limits. The system they have built up is primarily based upon the principle of restricting the consumption to legitimate neexis. The abuse of opium is prevented by limiting the amount of opium which an individual may possess at any one time, and by a continuous process of raising the price at which opium is sold to the consumer, only stopping short of the point at which the object in view would he defeated by the attraction of smuggling.
The Opium Act, 1878, prohibits the manufacture, posses- sion, transport, import, export and sale of opium, except as permitted by rules framed under the Act, and provides for the confiscation of any opium in regard to which an offence is committed. Officers of the Excise, Police, Customs, Salt, Opium
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