T
13
455
12
27. About the quantities of morphia in illicit use no figures can in the nature of things be procured, but the available figures of seizures are given below:--
PROVINCE.
1905.
1906.
1907.
1908.
1909.
1910.
REMARES.
oz. dr. gr.
vz. dr. gr.
Madras Presidency Bombay
1
oz. dr. gr.
0 30
oz. dr. gr.
oz. dr. gr.
oz. dr. gr.
1 0 0
3 0 0 !
49 0 35
7 2 8
1
0 13
Bengal ¿Mofassil
(Calcutta and suburbs
United Provinces
Punjab
Burma
(Misture of morphia in pills.ty
and 10 phials,
I packet and
3 bottles of
morphia.*
108 0 0
99 7 13
16 1 0
8 4 48
9 2 14
2 11 0
60 5 61
167 5 0
196 7 31
98 6 2
30 0 0 661
541,031 6 21
TOTAL
60 5 51
167
6 0
198 0 1
203 0 15
626 3 50 1,193
1 23
Weight not known.
Number not
known.
28. The sixth of the Shanghai Resolutions deals with the scientific investigation of the properties of opium and of possible Sixth to Ninth Resolutions. remedies for the opium habit. The evidence taken by the Royal Commission of 1895 contains all that we can say on the properties and effects of opium: and we consider that the scientific study of anti-opium remedies will more usefully be conducted, in the first instance at least, in European laboratories. On the seventh, eighth and ninth of the Shanghai Resolutions we have no remarks, as they do not directly concern the Indian Government.
Fourth Resolution.
29. We revert now to the fourth of the Commission's Resolutions, which opens up a question of the highest importance to the welfare of India. So far as we are in a position to prevent contraband trade in opium, we are fully prepared to take our part, and to carry out any detailed control over our exports upon which your Lordship may decide after receiving the conclusions of the Conference. The only ports at which opium is permitted to be exported from India are Bombay and Calcutta; and export is only permitted under Government supervision and regulations. The exports to China are strictly controlled under the terms of the Anglo-Chinese agreement of last May. The exports to prohibitionist coun- tries such as the United States, Canada and Australia, will be brought under supervision as soon as international action is agreed upon. The practical steps for India would be (1) to prohibit the export of opium under section 19 of the Sea Customs Act; (2) to take supplementary action to see that such prohibi- tion is not evaded by first exporting to a non-prohibition country and thence to a prohibitionist country; and (3) to prohibit the transmission of opium abroad through the post.
CONTROL OF DRUGS OTHER THAN OPIUM.
30. The subject of higher importance to us, however, in this fourth, as well as in part of the fifth, Resolution is the recommendation in favour of drastic control, in the countries of origin, over the distribution of opium, with its alkaloids, derivatives and preparations, and of morphine with its harmful con- geners. If this principle is accepted as a subject for international concert, we most earnestly urge that it be at once extended to cocaine with its allied drugs and synthetic substitutes. The extraordinary growth in the use of these drugs in India has caused us the gravest alarm. They threaten to produce a degrada- tion and demoralization among classes which have hitherto been free from this form of vice and to an extent which will entirely overshadow the evils arising
from opium. We cannot speak of the Far East, though we believe that the potential danger there is as great as it is in this country. But for India the question of checking the influx of these drugs has assumed the gravest urgency. Our means of dealing with their import are limited; and it is only in the countries of manufacture and export that the control can be effect ve. We trust that the Conference will regard it as their clear duty to help India in this matter in the same spirit as India has co-operated in forwarding the eradication of the opium habit in China.
31. Concerning morphine and other derivatives of opium, the questions of export and of production are equally important. We are prepared to take all reasonable action in both directions, and we must look to the other countries represented at the Conference to agree to similar action on their part. The Indian production of these drugs, their distribution, their imports, and the countries from which they are imported, have already been detailed. There is practically no export of such articles from India except that from the Govern- ment opium factory at Ghazipur to the well-known English firm already referred to. We would suggest, as regards exports, similar precautions to those described above in respect of the export of opium; and as regards production, a system of control by means of licenses (where a Government monopoly is not desired), and a system of accounts by which the manner of disposal of the drugs We produced can be ascertained in so far as their exports are concerned. quite understand that the Conference may not interest itself in the question of production except in so far as it affects exports, licit and illicit, but it is urged that no precautions against smuggling will ever be effective unless there is full control at the centres of production. This is fully recognised in the American Federal Bill of last year, imposing a tax upon and regulating the production, manufacture, and distribution of habit-forming drugs.
Dr.
32. The dangers of cocaine and its allies and the necessity for their inter- national regulation are much greater, because there is an enormous volume of international illicit traffic in them, and their direct connection with the worst forms of crime has been conclusively demonstrated. As Mr. Secretary P. C. Knox says in his Report to the President of the United States, dated February 18th, 1910, cocaine" "has proved to be a creator of criminals and of unusual forms of violence, and has been a potent incentive in driving the primitive classes of the community all over the country to abnormal crimes." Hamilton Wright, one of the American delegates to the Shanghai Commission, describes cocaine as "more appalling in its effects than any other habit-form- ing drug used in the United States." The legislation against cocaine in the United States is new, but it is drastic, and further legislation was under con- sideration last year, including provisions for "the registration of every person who imports, produces, manufactures, compounds, distributes, or otherwise handles habit-forming drugs in inter-state or foreign commerce.” The proposed Federal Bill imposing a tax upon and regulating the production, manufacture, and dis- tribution of certain habit-forming drugs (including coca leaves, cocaine, alpha and beta eucaine, etc.) requires the registration of exporters also. Not only is the urgent necessity for the international regulation of cocaine recognised by the Power at whose instance the Hague Conference has been called, but such regulation along with the regulation of morphis at centres of production was expressly made a condition on which the invitation to participate in the Con- ference was accepted by His Majesty's Government. We now proceed to set out the information about cocaine, which has so far been gathered in India and which justifies the apprehensions which we have expressed regarding its use and its effects in this country.
33 Cocaine is an alkaloid obtained from the leaves of the cuca or coca plant (Erythroxylum coca), a shrub indigenous to South America. It is found in Java, and has also been grown experimentally in the tea districts of Madras, Mysore, and Bengal. Mr. Comber, Chief Superintendent of Excise in Burma, has successfully cultivated it in Lower Burma, where it appears to thrive well. The leaves are extensively used for chewing in South America, where over 80 million persons are estimated to be addicted to the habit. Coca used in its raw state is a stimulant of the nervous system. If taken in moderation it may possibly be beneficial; but it is certainly harmful if taken in excess.
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