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regretted that unscrupulous traders and Chinese in this country frequently plot together and carry out by skilful means secret exportation of these medicines. Recently, on the 6th December, 1920, was issued Home Department Ordinance No. 41, Concerning the Control of Morphine and Cocaine and Salts Thereof, which was based on the Stipulations of the International Opium Treaty; its principal object is to restrict importation and exportation and control manufacture and sale. It came into operation on the 1st January, 1921. It brings under control all the medicines (excepting medicinal opium) mentioned in Chapter III of the International Opium Treaty, and the restriction of exportation and importation and control of other matters as prescribed in the ordinance are being carried into effect. The principal points of the crdinance are as follows:
I. Importation of Morphine, &c. A person who proposes to import morphine &c. from a foreign country or a colony must obtain the permission of the Minister for Home Affairs; and the Home Department makes it a rule to decide whether to give the permission or not by computing the amount of the medicine in store in the country and estimated amount of its demand, and by considering the credit of the applicant. In the case of morphine and heroin salts, as there is a plentiful supply in store and there is a fairly large production in the country, permission for importation has been withheld since the coming into operation of the departmental ordinance. In the case of cocaine salts, as the amount in store at the time the ordinance came into operation was not large, and was considered insufficient to meet the demand at home, permission for its importation within a fixed amount was given last year, but as there has been an increase in home manufacture, it has been decided not to permit importation during the current year. 2. Exportation of Morphine. &c. Exportation also requires the permission of the Minister for Home Affairs; and the application
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for exportation is not granted unless it is accompanied by a certificate of permission from the competent authorities of the place of importation; and further, if the quantity is considered excessive, or in other cases if deemed necessary, the quantity may be revised or the permission withheld.
3. Manufacture of Morphine, &c. The departmental ordinance merely prescribes the making of a report for manufacture; but as a matter of fact, these medicines, with the exception of cocaine are made from opium, and as opium for medicine manufacture is sold in fixed quantities every year, as already stated in connection with the control of opium, only to the four medicine-manufacturing companies specially designated by the Minister for Home Affairs, these medicines cannot be manufactured by other than these four companies.
And as for the importation of coca leaves, crude cocaine and ecgonine, from which cocaine is made, since the permission of the Minister for Home Affairs is required under Art. I of the departmental ordinance, the manufacture of cocaine cannot be engaged in without permission. There are now in Tokyo and Osaka altogether only six companies of different sizes engaged in the manufacture of cocaine, and there is no intention at present of increasing the number of such manufactories. Control of Sale of Morphine, &c. As morphine, &c. are either poisonous or powerful medicines and are also among the specially designated medicines according to the Law Con- cerning Medicines, it is a fundamental rule that they must not be sold by any person other than a pharmacist, or a druggist who has a pharmacist in his employ and it is provided that any person who requires them for vocational purposes must present a certificate drawn up according to form and with his seal affixed thereto, stating the name and quantity of the article required and his name and address; and medicine inspectors attached to each prefectural office continually make
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