!
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3
8
against malaria (for which its relatively high anarcotine content 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 opium except under regular medical prescription would be a mockery; to many millions it would be sheer inhumanity. The licensing or registering of regular opium eaters is equally out of the question, and would be regarded throughout India as an indefensible and intolerable intrusion on indi- vidual liberty.
18. The minor reforms recently carried out in the details of opium adminis- tration in the several provinces have been so numerous that would be tedious
to make more than a brief allusion to them. The Government of Burma has, as lately as 1910, completely recast its Opium Rules in the direction of greater stringency as regards the possession and sale of opium. Under the Burma Opium Law Amendment Act (Burma Act VII of 1909) persons who are believed to earn a livelihood in whole or in part by unlawfully trafficking in opium or by abetting such traffic can be dealt with in a similar manner to that provided for under section 110 of the Criminal Procedure Code. That section empowers Magistrates to require security from habitual thieves, burglars, and other criminals, and in default of security to send them to prison. Under the same Burma Act the powers of excise and other officers to arrest and search for opium have been enlianced. By an amended Excise Bill at present under consideration an attempt is being made to strengthen the law in respect of other intoxicating drugs, which show a tendency to take the place of opium with every increase in the stringency of the opium law. Besides a provision for taking security from persons who deal unlawfully in cocaine, it is made a penal offence to keep a place for administering any intoxicating drug, and guilt is presumed in certain cases.
19. Another weapon in constant use against the growth of unnecessary indulgence in the drug is the stealy rise in the price of opium issued from Government treasuries, and consequently its ultimate price to the consumer. The Central Provinces propose to raise their issue price from Rs. 233 to Rs. 27 per seer, and this proposal is being accepted. In Coorg, Eastern Bengal and Assam, Madras, the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province and the United Provinces, the issue prices have been recently raised. Bengal is prepared to raise its issue prices and will be instructed to do so. In North- ern India caution is required in dealing with opium-growing districts and the districts bordering on them, as every increase in price stimulates the illicit retention or sale by cultivators of opium grown by them. This difficulty will however become less as the area under poppy is being reduced year by year. In Burma the retail price to consumers is fixed at a uniformly high figure, Re. 1-0-0 per tola (180 grains) for crude excise opium, and Re. 1-4-0 per tola for prepared excise opium, except at a few shops where it would be easy to obtain smuggled opium at a lower rate. For foreign opium in the four districts in which this opium is sold, the rates at present are 10 anuas per tola for crude opium and 15 annas per tola for prepared opium.
A further check on the consumption of opium is provided by the reduction of the legal limit of private possession of opium. This is at present 3 tolas in all provinces except Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam, and Ajmer-Merwara (in these three provinces it is 5 tolas) and a small tract of Sind in the province of Bombay (the desert talukas of Thar and Parkar), where it is 10 tolas.
In Bengal, the limit will be reduced to 3 tolas in certain areas proposed by the provincial Government, and the Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam will be invited to consider the desirability of a similar reduction. The Bombay Government propose to reduce the ordinary limit to
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1 tola, and the limit in the exceptional desert tracts of Thar and Parkar from 10 to 4 tolas, and this proposal is being sanctioned. Madras has already reduced the limit from 3 tolas to 1 tola. The Central Provinces agree to the reduction of the limit from 3 tolas to 2 tolas, and will be asked to carry it into force. In this province as many as 326 opium shops have been closed during the past 5 years. The combined excise and opium preventive service has also been largely strengthened in most of the provinces.
20. It will be seen that very substantial progress has been made in India in the restrictive regulations about opium. This review of our recent action may fitly close with the latest statistics about (a) the area under poppy in India, (b) the exports of opium from India, and (4) the issues of opium for consump- tion in British India* :-
(a) (1) Cultivation of poppy under the Bengal monopoly system —
Year.
1907-08
1908-09
1900-10
No. of cultivators.
1,308,791
1,117,898
969,529
Area actually cultivated and producing opiumo.
Acres,
488,548
361,83%
848,740
Quantity of
opium
produced.
lbs.
5,870,263
5,085,504
5,567,945
(ii) Estimated area of poppy cultivation and outturn in the Feudatory States of India (Central India and Rajputana Agencies) —
1904-05
1905-08
1906-07
1907-08
1908-09
1909-10
Estimated area
in acres
213,731
146,677
216,911
191,714
134,629
108,973
Oufturn in mannls.
1 maund=82; iba.
19,570
25,53+
45,868
32,469
26,061
20,148
Bengal Opium.
Malwa Opium.
Year.
Amount sold.
Amount exported.
Amount passing
TOTAL
Amount exported.
the scales.†
AMOUST EXPORTED.
1908
45,900
44,970
33,598
65,682
1009
42,300
43,465
18,142
56,667
1910
37,560
87,256
218
43,9771
(6) Exports of opium from India (chests)-
20,7121
13,202
6,721
(c) Issues of opium for consumption in British India (in sers; one ser=
23 lbs)-
Province.
1908-00,
1909-10,
Madras
46,404
44,006
Bombay
58,018
55,551
Bengal
95,316
85,417
Eastern Bengal and Assam
78,557
74,191
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
03,811
67,037
Punjab and N. W.-F. Province
64,753
62,582
Central Provinces and Berar
45,406
46,600
Ajmer-Merwara
2,653
2,552
Coorg Baluchistan
64
67
593
762
Ved
448,573
62,926
4,38,715
61,413
511,499
500,158
Fifth Resolution.
•
Add-Burma
Total British India
21. Passing for a moment over the fourth Resolution of the Shanghai Con- ference, which contemplates international action, we may consider the fifth Resolution, which deals with the internal regulation by each State of morphia and other harmful derivatives of opium. The Resolution states in the first place that "the unrestricted manu- facture, sale, and distribution of morphine already constitute a grave danger,
* The figures under all three heads will be found for a number of previous years in Staternents I, II and IV submitted by the British Delegates to the Shanghai Commission (see Commission's Report, Vol. II, pp. 191–193). The latest available figures here given bring the information up to date.
The figures in this column represent amounts passed in each funncial year (April 1st to March 31st), the figures not being compiled by calendar years, eg,, tho entry against the year 1908 refers to the year 1908-09 and so on.
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