PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
EPELLIC.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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No. 6.
SIR A. E. HAVELOCK to the MARQUESS OF RIPON.
MY LORD MARquess,
(Received April 2, 1894.)
Ox the 5th December last I reported to your Lordship in my Despatch of
Nuwara Eliya, March 4, 1894. that date* the information I had, up to that time, been able to obtain, with regard to the importation, sale, and consumption of opium and bhang in Ceylon. I have now the honour to supplement the information then given by a joint Report from the Principal Civil Medical Officer and the Director and Inspector-General of Prisons, and by a Report from the Inspector-General of Police.
2. The Principal Civil Medical Officer and the Director-General of Prisons express the opinion that there is no evidence to show that the abuse of opium, as distinguished from its use, is on the increase in Ceylon, and that there is no evidence to show that the abuse of opium has ever extended beyond a very small section of the community. They assert, basing their assertion on reports which they submit, that the admissions to prisons, asylums, and hospitals have not to any appreciable extent been influenced by the abuse of opium. They point out, on the other hand, the enormous benefits which result from a judicious use of opium. The statements from medical officers attached to their report contain much valuable testimony to the beneficial use of opium in cases of malarial and enteric fevers and of diseases of the choleraic class. I would particularly call attention to the report of Dr. Attygalle, Colonial Surgeon, Northern Province.
3. In commenting upon the effects of the use of bhang, the Principal Civil Medical Officer and the Director-General of Prisons state that the injurious effects of that drug are infinitely greater, and its medical uses infinitely less, than those of opium; and they call attention to the well-known fact that the use of bhang is known to act as an incentive to the commission of crimes of violence.
4. These two officers recommend all possible restriction of the use of bhang, but they are not at present prepared to advocate any measure which will tend greatly to check the importation of opium.
5. The Report of the Inspector-General of Police has been made with great care and after much research. It contains much valuable and instructive information, gathered from persons of all classes and positions in all parts of the Island. The conclusion which he has drawn, as regards opium, is that there is no evidence to show that there has been any very increased abuse of opium in most parts of Ceylon, while its increased use as a medicine has doubtless been beneficial, but that there appears to be ground for believing that in certain districts of the Island the abuse of the drug may be extending,
6. The information which I have now submitted to your Lordship was communicated by me to the Executive Council with a desire that the members would give me their written opinions as to the steps which should be taken, if any, for restricting the consumption of opium and bhang. The minutes of the members of Council, copies of which I enclose, show that all the members, with the exception of the Auditor-General, are of opinion that it would be undesirable to interfere with the use of opium. The Auditor-General thinks that, if regulations, based on those in operation in Burmah, could be devised which would not infliot the injury which he observes they would be liable to inflict, such regulations should be made. As regards bhang, the members are unanimously of opinion that if measures can be devised for suppressing its use, such measures should be adopted. But serious doubts are expressed or implied as to the possibility of making any such measures effective.
7. Study of the information I have been able to procure in Ceylon, and also of so much of that which has been obtained elsewhere as I have had access to, leads me irresistibly to the conclusion that the evils and inconveniences, and first among those evils and inconveniences, interference with the freedom of individual action, which must unquestionably attend any attempt to suppress or check the use of opium, would outweigh the benefits which might be derived from the suppression or diminution of the use of that drug.
• No. 4.
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8. It is to be gathered from the reports which I submit with this Despatch, that the statements made by Mr. C. E. Schwann, M.P., and by the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, to which my attention was called by your Lordship's Despatches of the 27th July last and of the 8th August last, are in some points exaggerated and in others incorrect. It is shown that the quantity of opium imported into Ceylon in 1891 was less per head than the quantity imported in 1881. It is shown that the use of opium has not perceptibly increased except in a very few localities. Testimony is given by observers of all classes that the use of opium is of immense benefit in many cases in which it is used, that it is harmless in most others, and that, even when it is abused, its effects are less mischievous and less injurious than those of intoxicating liquors. Good grounds are given for believing that the outward appearance of misery and suffering which is observed in some consumers of opium, is caused, not by the opium, but by some painful disease for which opium is taken as a palliative.
9. Your Lordship desires me in paragraph 3 of your Despatch of the 27th July 1893 to consider, among other aspects of the question, the advisability of closing shops in which opium may be smoked on the premises. I should be disposed to think that such a measure would be harmful rather than beneficial, for, granting that opium smoking is a vice, it would be better controlled in a shop open to supervision than in a private house. I assume that the closing of shops in which opium may be smoked would have little effect in preventing persons who desire to smoke opium from doing so.
10. Allusion is made in the latter from the Committee of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, which forms an enclosure of your Lordship's Despatch of the 8th August last,† to the system in force in Burma, whereby a register of all opium smokers is established, and the sale of opium is confined to those registered, in such quantity as may be shown to be necessary for their personal use, in order to avoid risk to life. I learn from a letter from the Revenue Secretary of Burma, a copy of which I enclose, that it is doubtful whether this measure, combined with a measure for reducing the number of licensed shops, has had any great effect in checking the consumption of opium, those measures having, it is believed, led to a large increase in sales by illegal agencies. Even were it admitted that the consumption of opium is a vice that should be suppressed, the experience of the effects of these measures in Burma does not encourage a trial of them in Ceylon.
11. It is certain that much of the error and exaggeration which prevail with respect to the effects of opium is due to the habit which exists of classing opium and bhang together. A popular belief has thus been created that the two drugs are similar in their nature and effects, although this is by no means the case; and thus the bad qualities and mischievous effects of bhang, which are real and undoubted, are, in the minds of most people, shared by the comparatively harmless drug, opium. It is to be gathered from the reports forwarded with this Despatch that the use of bhang or ganja is not at present very prevalent in Ceylon, but the statistical information obtained on this subject is not of much value, inasmuch as it only gives the numbers of persons who purchased the drug at licensed shops during a certain 24 hours, and affords no estimate of the numbers of those who avail themselves of the ease with which it can be grown and prepared in almost any part of the Island. Bhang is of some value medicinally, but its value in this respect is vastly less than that of opium; and, as already observed, its injurious qualities are vastly greater than those of opium. These considerations, combined with the fact that its use in Ceylon has not as yet spread widely, induce me to say that if measures can be devised for preventing its use, I think they should be tried. In the first place, its importation should be prohibited. But this measure, by itself, would only have the effect of stimulating the cultivation of the herb from which bhang and ganja are prepared. It would, therefore, be necessary to prohibit its cultivation, and further to provide for the destruction of the herb wherever it may be found. Legislation for the suppression of the importation of bhang and ganja, and of the cultivation of the herb from which these drugs are prepared, was had recourse to in Trinidad, while I was Governor of that Colony, in 1885. Should your Lordship favour the course which I propose, it would be of assistance to know the results that may have followed the attempts made in Trinidad to check the use of bhang and ganja.
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