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The position will then be that (apart from home smokers who will continue to be very few in number) all registered smokers must obtain their daily allowance from, and smoke it in a public licensed shop, from which they are not permitted to take away any opium. As, under the law, persons who do not hold ordinary smoking licenses will not be allowed in opium shops (see Opium Law, Section 32 (d)), and are liable to punishment if found, the danger of re-sale is practically done away with. The opium shops are nearly all situated in comparatively well populated places, and are thus subject to frequent inspection by officials. In nearly every Amphur district there are now two Revenue officials, one acting as accountant and the other as inspector, and among the latter's duties is the inspection of opium shops. Eventually every Amphur district will have these two officials.
It is obvious that the duty of inspecting a few shops is a very much easier one than the inspecting of the private residences of numerous registered smokers, if the latter were all allowed to smoke at home. Under the system to be put in force in this country the control of smokers, and the prevention of new smokers taking to the babit, are well provided for.
37. The question of control over retailers remains to be dealt with. The system as devised for this country, is as follows:-
Each retailer will be supplied with rolls of tickets, numbered consecu- tively like those used on tramways, &c.
The tickets will be of four different colours, corresponding to the four sizes of the opium tubes supplied to smokers in opium shops.
Under the new Law the consumer is raquired to present his pass book on making his purchase, vide Ministerial Regulations, Clause 6 and para. 21 above. The retailer will enter, in the pass book, the quantity taken, the date, and the number of his shop. In practice this will be done by using a hand stamp to indicate the size of tube taken, and another hand stamp to indicate the size and number of the shop. At the same time, he will write, on a ticket of the colour corresponding to the size of the tube, the customers's register number, and will also stamp it with the date and number of his shop.
38. In this way every tube of opium supplied to consumers will be
automatically accounted for.
further supplies of opium, he will tear off from the roll the tickets already
stamped, and hand them over to the Nai Amphor as his returns of opium sold. The tickets may then be checked, as regards number and name of license holder,
with the register of opium smokers compiled in the Nai Amphur's office, and
the particulars entered either in account books, duplicate pass books or index
cards. This work may be done by clerks, on comparatively low salaries.
When the retailer comes to the Nui Amphur for
The cost of tickets for a maximum number of 60,000,000 tubes will be
approximately 30,000 ticals, and the increase in clerical staff will cost in the neighbourhood of 240,000 ticals per annum, making a total of 300,000 ticala
per annum, but this sum will be well spent if the control which it is proposed to
exercise is as effective as it apparently ought to be. The consecutive numbers printed on the tickets (para. 37 ) will prevent fraud by the retailer, and will also
greatly facilitate the work of inspecting the sales and checking the stocks of opium in the retail shops.
39. It may be thought that the retailer might make illegal sales and enter fictitious registration numbers on the tickets, thus confusing the official inspectors. This has been foreseen, and the law (Section 32 (b)) accordingly
provides that retailers may only supply persons registered in the Amphur district
in which the shop is situated. As the Nai Amphur has a register of licensed smokers in his district, any fictitious number will as once be detected and the retailer punished.
40. A smoker registered in one Amphur district, and coming temporarily into another, must purchase his daily allowance direct from the officials of the
new district, and as he is not allowed to possess a pipe, he must smoke his
opium in an opium shop in that district on the same day. (Section 30 of Law ). 41. By the enforcement of the above provisions, it is hoped that new smokers will be prevented from taking to the habit, and that smuggling out of the country will be effectively prevented.
Before, however, putting the final provisions into force, viz., those
relating to the registration of smokers (Title V of Opiumi Law) it will be
necessary
take the following matters into consideration, namely
to
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