G.F. 323 0003230
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APPENDIX 'B'
Colony. It is submitted that Government has a duty to protect the people it governs from their worst excesses and folly and that heroin consumption falls firmly into this category because of its pernicious consequences. Beyond the purely local scene, to advocate the legalisation, sale and consumption of heroin in
Hong Kong at this period in time undoubtedly would be regarded as a retrograde step by the international community and would invoke the most hostile reaction from the United States in particular leading to diplomatic pressure being applied to the United Kingdom Government to ensure that no such thing happened. It would appear, therefore, that taken overall, grounds do not exist, medical or otherwise, to justify any serious consideration being given to legalising the sale and consumption of heroin in the Colony; rather Government's attitude and policy towards heroin should continue as heretofore. It is appreciated that what is contained in this paragraph and the previous one reduces a complex subject about which numerous books have been written to the most bare and simple terms, but nevertheless it is believed that they contain sufficient substance to dispose of the legalisation question in
regard to heroin.
Morphine
4.
Salts of morphine are used worldwide, including Hong Kong, for therapeutic purposes. The abuse of morphine in the Colony is very small indeed when compared with heroin or opium, only 97 cases being taken before the Criminal Courts between 1st April, 1967 and 31st March, 1972. No case was prosecuted during the financial year 1971/72. It would appear that the morphine substances abused here have found their way into the wrong hands either as a result of unlawful sales or through pilferage. Morphine base is opium from which most of the organic impurities have been removed chemically. It is essentially an intermediate product between raw opium and the making of morphine salt compounds
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