Bureaux to Restrict Drugs to Medical Use: The Vexed Question of Imports Peking, Jan, 26.
Reuter's Agency has received the following communication from the International Anti-Opium Association As General Secretary of the International Anti-Opium Association, may I call the attention of your readers to a very laudable effort on the part of the Chinese Government to control and restrict narcotic drugs to medical and scientific uses only, in accordance with the terms of the Hague Convention now represented by the Opium Council of the League of Nations at Geneva.
The first of six bureaux, entitled "The Bureau of Drug Inspection and Standardization," under the Ministry of the Interior, has been established in Shanghai, and later it is proposed to open others in Canton, Hankow, Chengtu, Tientsin and Mukden. The Provisional regulations issued by this Bureau are along the lines of the British Dangerous Drugs Act. This initial attempt is excellent as far it goes, but for the present it does not deal with the very difficult problem of importation. We have suggested to the Chinese Government the formation of a Government centre of importation and distribution. All these regulations are regulations sell morphia, ete., but how shal] it be obtained? The present system allows individual importation by Consular and official permits and places China in a very awkward position.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.