CO129-364 - Public Offices & Others - 1909 — Page 106

INDIA.

104

In India special regulations are in force in the various provinces with regard to the sale of cocaine. The most stringent are perhaps those in force in the Punjab, which prohibit the possession by any individual of cocaine and certain cocaine substitutes, such as eucaine, novacaine, tropacocaine, alypin and all admixtures or preparations of these, except in the following special

cases:

(a) Possession of the drug purchased from a duly authorised vendor for all medicinal purposes, on the prescription of a person, who practices medicine according to Western methods;

(b) Possession of the drugs, up to the limit of 1 ounce each, required for the exercise of his profession, by a person who has been registered under a European or American Medical Act, or who has received a medical diploma from an Indian University or College, and who practices medicine according to Western methods; and

(c) Possession up to the limit of 1 ounce as in (b) required for the exercise of his profession by a person, who has received a European or American degree in dental surgery, and who practices dental surgery in the European method.

In no other case is unlicensed possession allowed, and unlicensed sale is forbidden in all cases. A qualified medical practitioner or dentist may without a license dispense cocaine or its substitutes in his own prescriptions, but if he sells them he must be licensed to do so.

Licenses for sale are issued free of charge,

but