CO129-502-10 Macao opium traffic 6-12-1926 - 7-12-1927 — Page 115

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Copy.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

0.0.23(p) 6.

Geneva,

January 20th, 1927.

Translation.

TRAFFIC IN OPIUM.

ORT BY THE PORTUGUESE GOVERNMENT FOR 1925.

A. GENERAL.

(1) In Portugal, the Madeira Islands, the Azores

and in the Portuguese Colonies in Africs, Asia and Oceania

(Cape Verde, Guinea, San Tomé, Angola, Mozambique, the Indies

and Timor) on opium problems exist. The only Portuguese territory

where they arise is Macao, in the south of China.

The Portuguese nation, not being in direct contact

with countries in which the effects of narcotic drugs are

apparent, had not realised until quite recently the necessity

of taking defensive measures to prevent the abuse of such drugs.

In ectual fact the habit of opium smokin is confined

to Asiatics in Macao; at the same time, the imports of raw

opium into this colony have fallen from 2,000 cases in 1912 to 800

cases in 1926.

Pathological cases of the abuse of drugs which must

not be confounded with moderate opium smoking, have only been

observed hitherto in the two big towns of Lisbon and Oporto,

and then only very exceptionally. They may be said to be

obvious only to doctors.

The measures already taken by the Portuguese Government,

moreover, constitute an absolute guarantee against the abuse of

alkaloids throughout the home and colonial territories.

This explains why Portuguese legislators have been

in no hurry to promulgate measures for the prevention of an

ovil which is of so rare occurrence and so imperfectly known.

Customs/