457
16
39. The licit imports of cocaine and allied drugs into British India for the last 5 years, with the principal countries of origin, are shown below :-
17
PROVINCE.
1905.
1906.
1807.
1908.
1900.
1910.
REMARKS.
oz. dr. gr. oz. dr. gr.
oz. dr. gr.
oz. dr. gr.
oz. dr. gr. oz. dr. gr. :
YEAR.
From United Kingdom.
From other British posacssions.
From Germany.
From other Foreign countries.
TOTAL
Madras Presidency Bombay
Bengal
0%.
OZ.
OZ.
02.
(City and suburbs 1 Blofassi! Calcutts and sub-
urbs Mofassil
352 1 0 163 6 30
89 0 0 610 2 0
43 5 2
1 }
9
70 3 312
23 0 0
746 1 45
258 3 191,185
0 59
81 1 37
145 6 01
885 6 30
0 4 48
372 3 14
!
180 3 2
39 3 28:
34 7 27
53 3 16
85 0 43
508 2 433
24 6 56
12 1 334
20 7 1
11 1 54
20 1 29
53 6 10
United Provinces
1906-07
982
721
68
1,771
Punjab
£2 5
ŏ 524
31 6 183
14 0 72
58 7 27
23 S 259
0 18
95 2 41
9 1 7 135
1 283
254 3 42
of tabloids.*
and 22 bottles Weight not
known.
1907-08
1,420
526
1,946
65 6 28
118 1 27
Burma
978 0 1 776 4 279,338
0 4 0
4 40 2,682 1 34
i 6 0
1908-09
1,655
317
2,002
North-West Frontier Province Ajmer-Merwarn
...
7 7 221
0 74
0 0 3
[}
1900-10
1,063
20
144
1,089
TOTAL
1910-11 ·
1,218
2
176
7
1,898
The countries of origin from which the imports are received are not in all eases ascertainable, but only the port of last shipment. For example, it is possi- ble that Dutch and Belgian cocaine comes largely through German and British ports, and German cocaine through British and Belgian ports. A good deal of traffic also follows a round-about route through China and Japan, and through Far-Eastern ports like Hongkong, Macao, Amoy, Swatow, Singapur and Penang. Kiaochau may soon be added to the list. The chief German firms exporting cocaine to this country, according to our information, are Messrs. E. Merck and Co., of Darmstadt; Messrs. John Dieder Bicher and Co., of Berlin; and Messrs. Egomont Heydorn and Co. and Edward Brückner and Co., of Hamburg. To these may be added the following firms from whom cocaine and allied drugs have been received in India: Hamburg, Messrs. Blembel Brothers, and Karl Festin; and Darmstadt, Messrs. Schinilt and Wildenhaya (Schmidt und Wildenheim ?). It is said that cocaine can be most economically manufactured in Germany, because, its production being classed as an industry, the spirit used is issued duty free, and the acid used to precipitate it is a bye-product of another German industry; but on both these points our information is incomplete. As far as India is concerned, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and Holland are the principal countries of origin of imported cocaine. The exports of cocaine from India are so infinitesimal that they need not be considered.
40. The heit supplies of cocaine and its congeners, however, sink into relative insignificance beside the contraband trade. In spite of all our regula- tions and the yearly increasing activity of the Police and the Excise preventive establishments, the chief consumption of cocaine in India is unquestionably from supplies obtained illicitly. The drug fetches high prices, occupies very little space and can be easily hidden in postal packets or on the person as it has hot the tell-tale odour of opium. The amount of licit imports of cocaine in recent years into India may be roughly taken at about 1,400 ounces per Annum; the amount of illicit cocaine seized in British India in 1910 was over ,000 ounces. The seizures of illicit drugs represent an amount far below what Is actually consumed illicitly by the people. It is for these reasons that we arge the paramount necessity of striking at the root of the evil by the strictest egulation and control at the centres of production, and by enactments in the countries of production prohibiting or effectively regulating the export of these drugs to countries which forbid their import.
41. A statement showing the seizures of illicit cocaine and its congeners made by Excise and Customs officers in British India during the six years 1905 -1910 is appended. The provinces not shown in the statement have no illicit seizures to report. The progressive increase in the activity of the preventive services is reflected in the figures of illicit seizures, but the provincial Govern- ments are convinced that the cocaine vice itself is very much on the increase, and nothing but the whole-hearted co-operation of the countries of production will serve effectively to check the evil.
776 7 5631,007 0 15 1,876 5 2 2,497 4 35 2,897 7 574 5,151 1 201
It
42. This illicit traffic in cocaine has been minutely studied in Burma, is generally found in association with the traffic in morphia. A man engages a three-storey building. The principal dealer lives on the top floor. The first floor is used as a den where the drug is injected hypodermically. The ground floor is used for the sale of the drug by packets. This floor is strongly barri- caded, and the vendor sits behind a small opening (as in a pawn-broker's shop) and sells the packets. If a customer comes into the shop desirous of using the hypodermic syringe, he is admitted to the first floor, where he is supplied with a syringe and a packet or more of cocaine. He gets operated on and leaves the premises. When the sale of the packets downstairs is exhausted the proprietor of the house sends down a bottle or more of the drug. These are at once made up into packets ready for sale, and this goes on night and day. When the dens are raided, only small quantities of the drug are found; the bulk of it is either thrown into the latrine or into a bucket of water where it immediately dissolves.
Another and a less suspicious form of the cocaine den is where the pro- prietor does not ordinarily occupy a whole building. He confines himself to renting one or more adjoining rooms on the ground floor or the first floor. An agent is engaged to act as seller for one rupee a day, with food found. Part of one of the rooms is strongly boarded off. Inside the stronghold so formed the agent ensconces himself and sells the drug through a small aperture. The rest of the den is for the use of the customers. Some buy what they want and go away, while others wait their turn or remain to sleep off the effects. An expert injector is ordinarily found on the premises; he is paid one anna per injection. Scouts are generally placed outside the den. If it is raided before the alarm can be raised, the seller empties all the cocaine into the latrine and flushes it. The seller keeps only a small quantity of the drug for retail sale, as the den may at any time be visited by an official, and the seller would in that case be compelled to destroy all he has, to save arrest and prosecution. Sometimes the pieces of paper in which the drug has been sold (and which usually liftered the floor) have been collected, and the seller prosecuted on the Chemical Examiner reporting that traces of the drug could be found. Sellers and customers are, however, getting careful, and paper stained with the drug is no longer now found in the dens as a rule.
43. The prices paid for cocaine by wholesale importers into Rangoon are about Rs. 8 to Rs. 9 per ounce. The recent tendency of European prices appears to have been in the direction of cheapening the drug. The den- keepers and retail dealers buy from wholesale vendors at from Rs. 40 to Rs. 100 per ounce, but even these prices go up enormously when the supply is short. The den-keepers supply their customers at double or treble the prices they have paid. The drug is put up in one anna and two anna packets. The profits are so great that a large fortune may be secured by a single successful operation. In a seizure of cocaine in 1909, it was reported that a
profit of half a lakh of rupees (Rs. 50,000) would have been cleared if the consignment had been smuggled through,
aw
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